A New Hero
by ralee87
Summary: It has been my intent to bring Hydra to it's knees, that was the plan. Instead, I punched on with Iron Man, got scolded by super spy Nick Fury and made an alliance with someone who I'm not even certain I can trust and it's all sort of snow balling from there. My name is Brooke, I'm an escaped experiment with an ax to grind. Which is not going to be as simple as I'd first imagined.
1. Prologue

Prologue

My name is Brooke. I've had other names too, but this time, in this life, I am Brooke. I don't remember what my first name was. The name that my parents gave me. I was so young and it was so long ago. I look about 25 years old. I'm not, but I let people think that I am. It would disturb them to know the truth. My appearance is exactly average. Average height, average weight, average build. Plain faced, gray eyes, ash brown hair. I am unremarkable and forgettable. Most people don't even notice me. This suits me fine. I'm Australian. I fled to Australia after my third escape. Wide open spaces, or large crowded cities to vanish into.

I've lived several lifetimes here. Had several names, been different people. The first few lives were very short, a few months at most. I was discovering the nature of the new world that I had run to. It was hard to assimilate to a culture that I'd never known, with no knowledge of the language or history. I had trouble defining social cues, abiding by the unspoken laws of community living and establishing functional relationships. I hid myself so that I was able to watch families grow and learn together. I assimilated much from the schools and workplaces of people, all while staying unnoticed. I was very good at observing humanity go about its business and I soon became equally good at blending in. I never felt truly connected to my species though. It was hard to completely relate to them when my earliest memories were so radically far from the normal human experience. Mostly, I just tried not to be conspicuous or suspicious. I didn't use my abilities much. They were linked with frightening memories of my past, but I had to learn to reign them in so as to go unnoticed. If I became overly emotional, I would lose what control I had and become a target for frightened people, and then I'd have to move again. People fear what they don't understand. But the good thing about Australia, is that it's very big.

When I escaped, all I wanted was to live, undisturbed and as inconspicuous as possible. I didn't want to stand out or be noticed by anyone. I managed to live as a run of the mill, normal person for half a lifetime. I learned a lot about people, and myself in that time. But it was hollow, and it felt like a lie. I tried, but I can't ignore my past. I can't pretend that everything's fine and that I'm normal. It's unbearable to live with the constant feeling of something unfinished. Normal people can't do the things that I can do. Normal people don't have the colorful history that I have. I'm _not_ normal. I _don't_ fit in and there is no way that I ever really can. I fled my captors so many decades ago, but I'm not free and I'm still scared. I'm driven to do something about it or I'll never be at peace. So I have started a new lifetime. I have become someone new and I'm ready to leave Australia behind, ready to find, and face my past.

I was abducted from Australia as a small child, by an alien race called the Kree. They were responsible for a number of abductions during the history of earth, have an interest in the human race, which they considered to be primitive but with a curious type of potential. The Kree changed me. They turned me into something that wasn't quite human anymore, and I wasn't the only one. Later, by pure chance, a group of humans known as Hydra obtained me. They were extremely cruel, and that cruelty inspired them to create even worse experiments for me to endure than the Kree could have ever imagined.

I regard the Kree with contempt, but I loath Hydra with unfathomable depth. The perverse things that they subjected me to made them far more evil than an inquisitive alien race, and I was going to ensure that they came to regret their actions. It was time to stop hiding, and start hunting.


	2. The Tower, The Plan and Iron Man

CHAPTER ONE – The Tower, The Plan and Iron Man.

It didn't matter where in the universe I might wake up, I would never do it gracefully. My eyes had crusted shut and I pulled the blankets tighter about me in denial. I was not handling jet lag well. It was very dark in the room and the chill of the November weather permeated the room making it feel more like a cave than a cheap hotel room. I rolled off the bed, flicked on the lamp and looked at the clock. Urgh, two in the morning. Brutal. Rubbing my eyes. I pulled out a big map that I'd found at an information stall in the airport. It itemised all the popular tourist visiting locations, and contained helpful information for New York first timers. I perused the streets and memorised important locations. I didn't bother learning about any tours, opening times or activities. I wasn't here to have a fun filled holiday. I was here on personal business.

I pulled on some trackpants and staggered to the bathroom to splash my face in cold water. The flight to New York had been long, the culture shock had been... well, shocking. I'd binge watched hours of American television to prepare myself for my time in the Big Apple, but was still rather overwhelmed. Manhattan was gobsmacking, even if I did only happen to glimpse some of it through through my fingers during a terrifying taxi ride to my cheap hotel. What I'd seen had been busy. It was good that I'd booked the room in advance too, the city was flooding with people who were visiting their family for Thanksgiving. A totally foreign concept to me. I'd tried to ignore being glared at with loathing and disgust by a cold, dangerous looking man who was sitting the hotel lobby while I checked in, and then I'd taken my backpack into my room and left a 'Do Not Disturb' sign swinging on the door handle while I fell onto the bed. Briefly, I had wondered why New Yorkers seemed so damn unfriendly, and then I'd fallen fast asleep.

Now that I was awake, I was ravenous. I stuffed the map away, confident that I'd remember everything I needed, then I shoved my feet into my shoes, grabbed some cash and pulled on my coat before I took myself out in search of a big feed, grateful that New York has a reputation for being the city that never sleeps. I got out onto the street and experienced a touch of nostalgia while I looked about me. I remembered my first time venturing in to the city. It had been a mistake. I hadn't had effective control over myself back then and the sudden stress of city life had triggered shifting. I'd had a spectacular meltdown, the people were frightened and they drove me away. I didn't go back into a populated area until I'd gained control over myself after that.

To my delight, I found an all you can eat place a couple of blocks away, in what appeared to be a somewhat busy part of town, and while I was eating my way through everything on offer, I considered my game plan. It was unlikely that I could touch the Kree. A solitary human against a race of technologically advanced aliens with superior intelligence wasn't likely to end well. Would probably be biting off more than I could chew. The Kree had been responsible for me for over a century, it had been a meager 15 years that I'd suffered at the hands of Hydra. Though the Kree had years of brutality to answer for, I felt that Hydra deserved retribution more. The Kree are alien. They studied and experimented on me to learn about the human condition. I was no more than a lab rat to them and I found myself willing to accept their curiosity. Hydra are humans, yet they had no problem subjecting me to many inhuman procedures which they enjoyed immensely. I found that unforgivable.

Hydra were at least a human organisation and thus more readily accessible. The Kree were not, though I knew that they had observatories in hidden locations across the globe, it would do me no good to go hunting for those without superior technology. The problem being that even though I wanted to take Hydra down, I didn't know anything that was actually useful. When I'd been locked away by them, the man in charge was Lieutenant Von Strucker. A cruel man who had always looked smug. I'd googled him and found nothing. I knew that Hydra had squared off against Captain America during in WW2, but while he had resurfaced, frozen in ice, Hydra remained mysterious. There had been a few conspiracy theories online, something about them infiltrating a major government branch of defense, but there was so much contradicting information that it was hard to take any of it seriously.

Overall, I'd decided to follow facts over conjecture and instead of going to Virginia and browsing through Pentagon files, hoping to find something about an altercation with Hydra, here I was in New York, hoping to find valuable information by way of The Avengers and their much adored leader, Captain America. I figured that since it was fact that the Captain had been a major pain in Hydra's ass during the height of their power, he'd have to know _something_. The Avengers had been all over the news across the globe since the attempted alien invasion a few years ago, and had gathered extra exposure after some incident with Sokovia. They were the media's very favourite thing. The whole world adored them, for good reason. Even I owned avengers merchandise.

I figured that if I could find the Avengers headquarters, I could occupy their computer systems and gather the information that I wanted. If I was lucky, there would be files on Hydra and where to find them. Of course, I had no idea where the official headquarters of the world's most adored superheroes might be. It made sense that the location would be kept confidential. Not just in case someone with sinister intentions attacked, but to keep crowds of crazy fangirls from mobbing the heroes. It was still inconvenient though. It wouldn't be easy to find them, but, as I left the restaurant and stared up the street at the tower illuminated in blue and emblazoned with the name STARK... I had a good idea on where to start.

The Kree stole me from my family while Australia was still being settled. I was very young, barely walking and talking. I don't remember my parents. I had the memories once, but they faded fairly quickly once the Kree began their work on me. They were very inquisitive and I was subjected to many things to satisfy that curiosity. They learned a lot about pain thresh-holds at the start and wasted no time in breaking me, and then fixing me, and then breaking me in a different way. I endured points, blades, blunt objects, searing heat and burning cold, flames, liquid. I was inflicted with every kind of wound imaginable. I healed according to every type of injury before I grew out of my childhood. During the following years, they studied my immune system. I was exposed to more sicknesses than could be counted. I wished for death, but they never let any illness progress that far. When they'd reached their conclusions regarding my ability to recover from a variety of things, they began to try more drastic experiments. Exposing me to dangerous elements, poisons, controlled injections to study my physical response. They showed zero interest in anything aside from my physiology. I was just flesh.

Eventually they began experimental procedures on my molecular structure. They would pick me apart, atom by atom and create something that was entirely different, and then they would rebuild me, like I was a mere jigsaw puzzle. They forced radical changes, I would be made of flesh and blood and bone or I would be made of gold or diamond, gas, sand, steel. My genetics were no longer fixed, I'd started as human, but that could change according to their whims. I could be any animal, change into any plant, I could even be liquid. Sometimes they didn't force a complete change. They just gave my human body attributes. So I could be mostly myself, but with steel skin, or animal eyes.

I became so many things, that I became detached from myself. An unintended consequence perhaps, but while they broke down my body, my soul found a way to survive. It was a surreal experience. Learning to exist in two forms, and they never realised that my soul and my body became separate. That I could be one whole, or two halves. Physically, they owned me, but _I_ could leave the torture, the clinical indifference. _I_ could roam beyond the sterile rooms, and discover more than they ever intended me to. They were never aware enough of the human ego to think that there might be a way for it to exist without physical form. In this, I found freedom, and I found Hope.

When Hydra stole me from the Kree observatory, in the beginning they had no idea what they had found. I was the opportunistic grab of a praise desperate Hydra soldier who used his accidental good fortune to worm his way up to Lieutenant. They didn't know what I was capable of, and so took no risks. Their technology was primitive compared to the Kree, but it was effective. The collar they fixed around my neck, had fine wires that had plunged through the skin on my neck and into my spinal column. From that very moment, I had become Hydra's puppet. Entirely unable to exert any willpower of my own. I was more frightened and angry within Hydra's confines than I ever had been with the Kree. The Kree were all I had ever known. I had come to understand their language, their science, their society. Hydra were foreign and terrifying. When I wasn't being actively controlled, I was sedated, I couldn't even free my soul under these circumstances. I was more trapped my own kind than I had been with the aliens who had made me this way.

Hydra wanted to discover what I could already do, rather than change me. They tested my physical health and abilities, took dna samples and subjected me to many medical procedures. They tried to communicate, but I didn't comprehend their efforts. They pushed the limits of my molecular control, forcing me to fight to survive. They reveled in my versatility and were excited at the possible applications. I noted that the biggest difference between the Kree and the humans was their attitude. The Kree were indifferent to me. I had no identity to them. Hydra however, were actively cruel, subjecting me to humiliations, and taking their failures out on me. Their active delight in my pain terrified me.

After escaping, it took a long time for me to overcome the things that I had been through. It was hard to live a normal life, when being kept in a cell was all I'd known. I'd spent longer as a test subject, than most humans lived. And even when I'd learned to live a free life, the fear of being found and subjected to it all over again never really went away. Neither did the anger, or the outrage, or the guilt. I knew that I would never enjoy freedom while they were still out there, and I was sure they were. It was too much to hope otherwise. All of my lives had been spent looking over my shoulder, and always ready to run.

The cab dropped me at Stark tower. I stood at the base, staring up, desperately trying not to doubt myself. I had to do this. There was no other way. I had nothing else but this. This terrible plan. This terrible, badly thought out, incredibly risky plan. I took a deep shaky breath. No, no I could do this. I was an old hand at reading computer data, sourcing information. It was easy. Nothing I hadn't done hundreds of times before. I tried to calm my jangling nerves with a few deep and even breaths, and then slouched down against the wall of the building, away from the doors, resting my head on my knees. In and out. Easy. After all, all I wanted to know was the location of the Hydra Base. I had my doubts about Tony Stark having that kind of information, Hydra were Captain America's problem, not Iron Man's, but I had to start somewhere. Even if there was nothing regarding Hydra in Stark's data storage, there might be a lead on where I could find what I was looking for.

"Crazy." I muttered to myself. One lonely little Aussie was just going to ferret around in Iron Man's computer systems. Easy. No worries at all. Because Tony Stark is just a creative genius who creates technology that's way more advanced than anything I've been able to get my soul on in the past. Shit.

I projected my soul up and out of my body abruptly, my physical self tilted lazily to the side. Like a drunk person passing out. As good cover as any I suppose. I then entered the tower and located the computer systems. It wasn't hard. Stark's computer was literally everywhere. I let my soul settle in and began to reach out to the entire system. The very first thing I learned was that this was _not_ going to be the cake walk that I had predicted. The computer's name was Friday. She was a breathtakingly complicated piece of programming, that was tainted with Stark's soul and she was not at all expected. I had believed that I could come into this unopposed, but she knew that I shouldn't be there. She immediately began restricting my access, and she set of the alarms, alerting people in the building that the systems were being hacked. Which was more or less right.

I was torn between delight and horror. I hadn't anticipated any resistance at all, and had never encountered any before. The prospect of this nearly alive entity being here was exciting, but also a major hurdle. Instead of leisurely browsing through information, I was going to have to fight for it, and I was going to have to be fast. I pushed my way through her barriers and tried to lock her out, unfortunately she pushed back at me just as hard as I pushed at her and I was forced to do some very fast multitasking. I was barely able to skim over the data, my grasp becoming increasingly tenuous while I tried to fend her off. I managed to block any outside access, but for every lock I threw up, Friday was ready with a lock pick. If somebody gained outside access to the system, they could help Friday force me out, I couldn't allow that to happen before I'd gained what I needed.

I intensified my presence, it was a struggle, but I managed to integrate myself more securely within the system. becoming more powerful within the programming than Friday could handle. She never paused in her effort to flush me out, and she doubled her attempts to grant outside interference. I turned the bulk of my attention to the information stored within, it was just a matter of time before Friday was successful in outing me, so I had to get down to what I came here for. Most of what I encountered was to do with running Stark Industries, old tech, new tech. The arc reactor. Clients, business associates. The kind of stuff that was about as useful to me as a pancake recipe. Friday continued to niggle at me and I could feel external attempts to break in to the system, the outsiders were getting very close to breaching my lock outs and snatching my control.

It was frustrating. I had expected Stark tower to have some information that I could use, but there was nothing here that wasn't directly related to running this business. Though a portion of his business dealings were very interesting indeed, nothing here was worth constantly having to fend off Friday for. Stark had to have more important information than this somewhere! I tried to access employee files, hoping to find addresses and contact details, but Friday was prying me off her systems bit by little bit. Stark had created an incredibly tenacious program. I could only assume that the combination of Stark's genius and the rubbing off of his soul had something to do with it.

Disgusted at being thwarted, I acquiesced control to Friday and retreated entirely from the system. I hadn't retrieved what I had set out for, but I hadn't come away entirely empty handed. The few tidbits that I'd gleaned were going to provide food for thought, but it looked as though I was going to have to go to Virginia and look into the Hydra conspiracy leads, because Stark Tower had turned out to be a surprising, but ultimately useless source of information.

I returned to to my physical self, As soon as my body and soul were completely synchronized, I jolted to consciousness with a gasp. I ignored the slight weakness that the separation had caused and I staggered up and began to run. Nobody in that tower was likely to believe that my arrival and Stark's systems being hacked were coincidental, and I wasn't stupid enough to hang around thinking that I could lie my way out of trouble. I glanced over my shoulder as I bolted away and saw dark shapes pouring from the building entrance to take up pursuit. Bloody Stark. Bloody Friday. I hadn't counted on having to run, I hadn't counted on even being noticed. Now it was all shot to shit, and I was fleeing down the street. Stealth had been the entire basis of my plan. I wasn't in any shape to be running, let alone if things came to a fight. I was having to think fast on my feet and I could feel anxiety and fear creeping through me, causing my molecules to vibrate with unease. I'd taken off running directly away from the tower's entrance, the same way I'd gotten there, there was a park off this street, about two blocks away. If I could just make it there, I might be able to survive this pursuit.

I might not have had evil intentions when I broke into the data files, but Stark didn't know that, and there was enough information in those files to do serious damage to the business if it got into the wrong hands. I was in heap big trouble. Iron Man would be out for my blood over this, and it definitely wasn't the way I'd intended for things to pan out. I'd barely made it one block before my body began to completely protest my sprint. My muscles burned, my lungs were stinging and I could feel my heart beating in my throat. My stomach began prepping to empty itself of my meal from earlier and I tried to figure out the logistics of barfing on the run when I heard a tinny voice demanding that I stop. I had one more block to go, I would not be caught and trapped ever again. I pushed myself to go faster disregarding my pain and though I dearly wanted to look back at Iron Man, I kept going.

I was hit in the back by a repulsor blast. Stark had actually shot me! Jesus things had gotten real, fast! The searing punch of energy burned through my clothes, my skin bubbled and blistered. I was thrown forward off my feet. I landed hard on my elbows and knees, gasping hard with sweat and tears streaming down my face. The pain in my back was so intense that I nearly passed out. Between the repulsor blast, the impact of hitting the road, and the grit now embedded in my skin, everything was stinging. I scrambled up and something flew past me, flicking up my hair. I glanced up to see Iron Man before me, hands held ready to hit me in with another repulsor blast if necessary. My heart rate hit the roof, and the adrenaline rush triggered by the threat of being shot at in the face by _the_ Iron Man blotted out the pain and exhaustion.

"I don't know how you got into my systems in the first place, but it looks like your little snatch and run didn't work out." he said casually, his stance the exact opposite of casual. I threw my arms up in a defensive position, then I took a deep breath and shifted my molecular structure to the strongest substance that I knew of. Clearly, it was game on.

"Something made painfully obvious by the fact that I've got Iron Man riding my goddamn ass." I told him, my voice nearly as metallic as his. I hoped that he wouldn't hear the blinding panic in my tone. I suddenly charged forward, catching him off guard, and slammed my palm up into Iron Man's chin with all of the force that I could muster. My shift had given me the extreme strength and resilience of the metal that I had adapted into my molecular structure. He lifted off the ground and went backwards in a graceful arc, hitting the ground with a very heavy, very painful sounding thud. I didn't hang around to watch him recover, I charged onward to the park.

I was running on pure desperation and adrenaline, which would soon wear off and then my body would just give out, I had to reach the park before that happened. I could hide, if I could just get there. I mustn't have caused too much damage to Stark's suit with my strike, because he shot at me again, but the blasts were just absorbed and didn't even affecting my stride. I knew he could fly faster than I could run, but at the moment, I was as strong as any superhero. I scrambled to a stop behind a parked car, and after quickly observing his trajectory, I heaved it up into the air directly at him. I heard the collision, but was already running for safety.

I finally got to the park, slamming directly into the chain-link fence that surrounded it. I slumped against it, I was starting to get tunnel vision and my arms and legs weren't responding like they should. There was no way I was going to be able to climb over it. I glanced over my shoulder, Iron Man had shaken off his collision with the car and was resuming the chase. Desperately I kicked at the bottom of the fence and then dropped and rolled under the warped steel, but as I got back to my feet, I came face to face with the pretentious golden Iron Man mask. He grabbed my arms to keep me from bolting again. I felt bile rise in my throat, caused through exhaustion or fear, I couldn't tell, and I leaned forward and vomited all down the front of Tony Stark's very expensive, infamous Iron Man suit.

"Oh my god that's disgusting!" He exclaimed, the horror evident in his tone. Fatigue was affecting my focus and my change began to fluctuate, I had to concentrate very hard to bring myself back into the shift. "That's Vibranium!" Stark exclaimed, noting the change "But how did you... have you... are you?" He spluttered while I lolled in his grip. My knees sagged and my head fell back. I breathed hard, summoning the dregs of my remaining strength.

"Ta daaaa!" I breathed before I very suddenly straightened my knees and shot forward, my head snapping Iron Man in the face with a head butt that buckled his shiny armor and sent him to the ground in a knocked out, tangled heap of hot-rod red, gold and puked on suit. I dropped to my knees and let the shift go, returning to my normal human self. I crawled back under the fence and into the street. Stark was in no condition to stop me now, and the other pursuers from the tower were nowhere to be seen. I didn't need to hide in the park, I just needed to get to a bed. Very wearily, and with one last glance back at the maimed superhero, I hailed a cab and got the hell out of there.


	3. Strangers and Choices

It was still dark when I got back to my hotel, which was as seemingly deserted as when I'd left. I hoped that no-one was keeping track of my movements. I didn't doubt for one moment that Stark would find me eventually. I crept through the foyer and pushed the elevator button, receiving a nasty shock when Mr. Dirty Looks from the lobby earlier, appeared out of nowhere and stood to wait for the elevator. As if I hadn't been through enough. He looked at me with open disgust again, his gaze crawling up and down, lips curling as they took in the state of my clothes. Torn, dirty, puke splattered. We entered the elevator, heading for the same floor. Fantastic. I was going to have get used to running into Captain Tall, Dark and Mean. He didn't seemed thrilled at the prospect of spending more time with me, and I didn't blame him really. I was a mess. Torn up and bloodied clothes, dirty, sweaty skin, there was a big scorch hole in the back of my jacket and t-shirt, and since the repulsor blast had destroyed my bra as well, it was sitting peculiarly at the front, making me seem all misshapen and lumpy. My track pants were torn in the knees, with blood spots and filth all over them and there seemed to be chewing gum adhered to the toe of my sneaker.

I looked as though I'd been dragged backwards through wet hell. Meanwhile he was looking extremely sharp. Slacks, shirt. All clean, tidy and expensive looking. Nice shoes, neat hair. I envied him intensely. He clearly hadn't seen as much excitement as I had at this ungodly hour of the morning. I cocked my head slightly and shamelessly surveyed him, being far too tired for subtlety. He was quite attractive really, despite his scowl. Tall, lean. Clever face with excellent cheekbones. Shame he was acting like an asshole. He leveled me with another stare, as though it was my fault that the elevator was agonizingly slow.

"Mate," I said, trying to ease the uncomfortable atmosphere, "Those night clubs aren't for the faint at heart." I forced a laugh and pulled a face. Yeah. We were all buddies here. The lift dinged, doors gliding open to reveal our floor. He acknowledged my words with a forced grimace, that I think was supposed to be a vague smile, and then skulked into the hall. The situation got even more awkward as we realised we were heading in the same direction. I couldn't believe it. He was practically radiating resentment. I clenched my jaw, not quite believing this situation. I'd just hacked the computer of a certified genius, punched on with Iron Man and here I was feeling intimidated by some snooty prat in a green shirt.

"Do have a problem with me, or do you just hate people in general?" I blurted irritably. What the hell, might as well find out what his problem was. Seemed to be the morning for confrontations. He turned to me, wearing a quizzical expression, a politely puzzled tilt to his lips. "I beg your pardon?" He was the very picture of cool courtesy and I was in absolutely in no mood for this kind of passive aggressive bullshit.

"Oh cut the crap, you keep looking at me as though you're picturing how I'd look wearing an axe in my sternum. Is there something that I'm doing that pisses you off in particular or are you just an unpleasant person?" I ground out at him hotly, Feeling angrier than was justified. I was tired and cranky and he was being mean. I'd reached my door, and swiped the key card with unnecessary force while I glared at him expectantly. His eyes met mine briefly before he glanced away. I didn't think that he liked being expected to explain his behavior. "It is not personal." He finally admitted grudgingly. He then turned and swiped his own card with a great deal of focus, clearly wishing I would just leave him the hell alone. I blew out a loud, defeated sigh and turned my door handle.

"So you just hate people? Well, enjoy that." I shoved the door open and glanced over my shoulder at him, then paused. If I was throwing caution into the wind, I might as well go all in. "Hey Mr Anti-Social, I don't suppose you know how I might find the Avengers?" I asked and his head whipped around to stare at me, mouth dropped open, his jaw flapping, making him look like a handsome dark haired goldfish. He quickly recovered himself, straightened and his expression became haughty.

"And why in the Nine Realms would I share that kind of information with you?" He sneered, sounding superior. It was a tone that suited him. Nine realms? The hell was that supposed to mean?

"You're right, I didn't exactly ask nicely." I rubbed my chin, and smiled slyly, "It doesn't matter, I don't think you can really help me anyway." I poked at his pride hoping that he'd yield what he knew. But he didn't. He just smiled indulgently at me, clearly knowing exactly what I was trying to do.

"More likely that I simply don't want to." he murmured, but his eyes glittered with amusement and he was watching me for my reaction. I squinted at him, was this guy for real? He seemed more receptive to my blatant attempt at manipulation than to my strained elevator small talk.

"Which is fair enough. Kind of mean though. Are you this mean to your friends too?" I muttered sarcastically and crossed my arms. He was kind of weird. He stared at me for a long moment. "I don't have friends." He said coldly, all traces of amusement gone. I raised my eyebrows at him.

"Oh gee, well I wonder why?" I exclaimed and he looked surprised at my audacity. Probably wasn't used to being sassed. I shrugged at him and vanished entirely into my room, shutting him out with a decisive click. It wasn't until after I'd showered and fallen Into bed that I realised his words had been spoken very carefully and deliberately. I was no genius, but he seemed to be just as foreign here in New York as I was.

I managed to wake up around noon, sore, groggy and starving. I'd burned through a lot of energy shifting, now I needed a lot of food. I yanked on jeans and a hoodie, looking forlornly toward the bin where this morning's clothes had ended up. My backpack was already half empty. I'd need to go shopping soon, and look for a permanent place to live. It wasn't likely to be easy, the exchange rate meant that I wasn't quite as rich in America as I'd been in Australia, and unless I found a job, my savings would just dwindle away to nothing before I ever found Hydra.

I found a seat in the coffee shop next to the hotel and ordered off a pretty waitress. I twisted the thin loops of chain around my neck while I waited, recalling the tidbits of information I'd retrieved before Friday had ousted me last night. Stark Industries had some history, none of it relevant to what I was supposed to be doing, but worth mulling over. Back when it had been Howard Stark arming the world, he'd come across an alloy called Vibranium that had roused his curiosity. Unfortunately, he'd been unable to examine all of the applications of it due to the limited amount available to him for study.

His son Tony had once attempted negotiations with the nation Wakanda, where the alloy originated from, with no success. He'd reached out to their king, T'Chaka, who'd refused his offers. The information in the server didn't go into any further detail regarding Wakanda. Apparently there had been an alternate source of Vibranium through a man known as Ulysses Klaw, who had stolen a significant amount from the Wakandan nation, but he was so low brow and shady that even Stark had refused to deal with him.

The waitress returned with my order and I was stirring sugar into my coffee when someone slid into the chair opposite me. "You are looking much better this afternoon." He said coolly. I glared at him and sipped my coffee.

"Not that it's any of your business. What do you want?" I didn't care if I was being rude. after this morning's interaction, I felt no need to even fake courtesy with this man. He gave a soundless chuckle at my brashness.

"You came back looking rather... worn, you ask me about The Avengers and you're less than courteous, which is refreshingly real. Certainly it makes a drastic change to the usual polite false niceties that I've encountered." He signaled for coffee and settled in comfortably at my table. Which I'd never even invited him to. He did have a point though, I'd been at least as confronting as he was. He gave me a charming smile, and it did amazing things for his attractiveness. "You've roused my curiosity and I find that I should like to know you better. Surely it can't do any harm?"

"I suppose not." I grunted, though I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously. I picked up my knife and fork and began to tuck into my food. Effectively ignoring him. I wasn't sure what he wanted, but I certainly didn't trust his motives. Perhaps it was true, and I'd interested him, but I could smell an agenda. I shoveled more food into my mouth, needing the energy it would provide me. I glanced up at him to find that he was watching me with distaste. I was making a pig of myself. "I'm sorry." I said, wiping my mouth on a napkin, "I'm just really hungry."

"Worry not, I have seen worse." He waved off my apology and waited for me to put my fork down before reaching across the table to capture my hand in his freezing cold grip, "My name is Luke Frost." We awkwardly shook hands over the table top.

"My name's Brooke. So, to what do I owe the pleasure Luke? I assume you've got something particular on your mind." I leaned forward. I wasn't ready to believe anything this man said to me, so I slid my soul slightly out of sync with my body. By doing this I was able to see and accurately read other souls, which means I would know if he lied. I retained control over my physical self. Albeit somewhat jerky control. Like I was suffering gamers lag.

The first thing that I noticed of Luke's soul was that it was nothing like any other soul I'd ever seen before. I have lived long enough, and seen so many souls that it's become a simple matter to identify the differences in humanity. A mutant's soul is different to perceive than a non-mutant soul. There are even a group of souls that I can't categorize. They're human, but extra. Luke's soul wasn't remotely human. It was more. Older, wiser and it's moods were more complexly woven together than I knew was possible. It was beautiful and it was absolutely terrifying. I put my guard up.

Luke tapped his finger on the table thoughtfully, he gave me a sideways look and his mouth twisted into a smile, "I find myself intrigued as to why you want to find the Avengers," He _was_ curious, but his soul flashed resentment when he mentioned the Avengers, "and naturally, I should like to know why you appeared so disheveled in the early hours of this morning." He raised an eyebrow at me and I had the feeling of being dragged deeper into the crap that I'd accidentally wandered into. They say, when you're in it up to your neck, you should keep your mouth shut. Of course, I tend not to.

"What, you don't believe that I'd been clubbing?" I asked, signaling for more coffee and trying not to think about how this beautiful not-human being was being so friendly. The waitress trotted over and filled my mug obligingly. She gave me a friendly smile and shot Luke an appraising look, which he completely missed. I almost felt sorry for the poor woman who was sashaying away from us seductively, hoping that he might yet notice her. He didn't. Luke snorted, breaking my focus on our waitress's backside.

"Hardly. I have seen people who have been clubbing, they are altogether a different kind of dirty." He raised an eyebrow at me. It took me a moment to remember what he was going on about. He was implying that people who go clubbing come back a sexed on kind of dirty, which was not how I'd returned last night. I'd come home looking like something that the cat threw up, complete with actual vomit chunks. I internally cringed just thinking about it.

"I was beaten up. Great welcome to the city." I didn't think I needed to mention who I'd been beaten up by. "I want to know where Avengers are, simply because who the hell doesn't these days? Seriously, they're basically gods. Actually, one them _is_ a god. What can I say, I'm a big fangirl and I just want to touch them. It's like, my life long dream." I didn't think I was really selling the crazed, fangirly, stalker persona that I was trying to put on. My pitch wasn't quite high enough, and it felt very forced. He knew that I was lying too. The disbelieving look on his face and the half a smirk indicated that I shouldn't take acting up any time soon.

"Oh that _is_ disappointing." He murmured, "I'm sure you could have concocted a better lie than that." He grinned at me and I pulled a face back, then shrugged.

"These things happen." I had a noisy slurp from my coffee, so far I'd concluded that Luke was a dark man, with a sinister sense of mischief that you wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of. I was sure he had an interesting story, after all, his soul was something unique, therefore a source of great fascination for me. "Where are you from Luke?" I asked.

"England." He said quickly. But his soul shrank from the lie. I cocked my head. He certainly sounded British, but apparently that wasn't where he called home. Despite the obvious layers of deception, I was enjoying myself immensely. It had been a long time since I'd been able to participate in this kind of lighthearted repartee. He's good looking, clever, charming and, let's not forget, not human. Though I suppose, technically, I really wasn't anymore either.

"Oh that _is_ disappointing." I mimicked. He gave me a quick searching look, a fleeting uncertain smile passing across his face, "I'm sure you could have concocted a better lie than that." He was rather adorable when he was trying to figure me out. I grinned at him, he opened his mouth to reply, but then his eyes fixated on something behind me and his playful expression dropped, apprehension flaring up in his soul.

"My, my, my, we are a creature of untold mysteries aren't we? I do wonder just what it is that you're up to when I see Nick Fury seeking you out." He grinned and I bent to look behind me. There was a tall African-American man in a long, black coat. He looked as though he'd just stepped out of The Matrix, apart from the eye patch. He had his gaze locked on me and was weaving his way between the tables. His soul bristled with determination. His name was ringing bells, but I was struggling to recall how I knew it. "And who's Nick Fury when he's at home then?" I asked, but when I turned back around, Luke had vanished. That slippery little shit.

"Is this seat taken?" Fury asked abruptly, before he sat down without waiting for an answer. He settled into the chair, but still managed to look awkward. Here was a man that belong in action, not sitting at an intimate table for two in a little cafe.

"How can I help you Mr. Fury?" I asked sweetly, taking great pleasure in the surprise that I knew his name. He wasn't used to being thrown off guard. He observed me carefully, deciding how best to talk to me.

"I understand that you had quite an exciting night Miss Davis." He said finally. I wasn't surprised that he knew who I was. It was obvious that this guy didn't go anywhere without knowing everything and being prepared for all possible outcomes. I was more of a 'winging it' kind of person myself. I pushed my empty cup away and wiped my face before I answered him, "It was an interesting learning experience." I studied him intently, eyes on his face and his soul.

"Cut to the chase Nick, why are you here?" Nick narrowed his eye at me. I tried not focus on his eye patch. He didn't seem to like my attitude, but then, not many people did. Luke being perhaps the only exception.

"I received intel that someone hacked Stark Industries computer systems in the early hours of the morning, and when Iron Man gave chase, he was... well, he didn't apprehend the perpetrator." Fury admitted, I grinned. Damn right he didn't apprehend me. I pondered on Fury's word choice. 'Received intel' meant that it wasn't Stark who had put Fury on my tail. He had an insider in Stark Tower. Oh Mr Fury, you deviant.

"That's an interesting way of putting it." I commented, "I think you'll find that even though his server was breached, nothing was actually stolen." I suddenly figured out why Fury's name was familiar. I'd seen it in Stark's data files. Fury had been the Acting Director of an organization that Stark had supplied weapons to and after bunking out of the weapons business, Stark had become an official tech adviser. The business history dated back to his father's day. Howard had been one of the founders of the organization. Strategic Homeland Intervention and Enforcement Logistics Division. Quite a mouthful, that was abbreviated to S.H.I.E.L.D. Despite the fact that Shield had fallen off the map some time ago, apparently, it hadn't fallen far enough if Nick was here.

"It's not the breach of his server that we're interested in, though that is a concern. I don't even mind that Stark was beaten. It'll do his ego good. What concerns me is _how_ Tony was taken down. It's not every day that tiny anonymous Australian girl shows up and humiliates a renown superhero in a chase that lasts two blocks." When it was put like that, it was hard not to feel kind of smug. But I remembered the fear, the burn and the puke and the feeling quickly faded.

"I'm not tiny, I am _average._ " I corrected Fury, "If Stark had let me run away, which was the plan, I wouldn't have had to take him down. Instead he chased me and shot at me. I had little choice but to defend myself. It's honestly pure luck that I succeeded." I wondered which Nick was more interested in. The How, or the Why. "I'm going to go ahead and assume that he doesn't know that you're here, so how did you find me before he did?"

"It wasn't difficult. Eye witness accounts, incoming at the airport, security footage. Facial recognition scanning. I have more access to these searching methods than Stark does." Fury shot me an amused look, "Also, Tony was unable to immediately start a search when he regained consciousness. Something about his Iron Man mask being so dented that it had to be carefully cut off him. He's also nursing a concussion and is really, very unhappy with you."

"Well. I can't say I'd be too thrilled with me either if I were him." My waitress dropped my bill off at the table and I grimaced at it, I'd eaten a lot and I needed to tip. I sighed, "What's the point here Fury? Are you arresting me, charging me with something or hitting on me? I don't mean to be pushy, but I've got other pressing concerns." Fury's face hardened and he watched me carefully count out cash for my bill.

"You have enough skill to take down Iron Man. You're obviously powerful, and smart. I want you under my control. You could be a valuable asset and in case I am not making myself clear enough, you're also an unknown, which makes you a threat." He stood up, took a card out of his pocket and placed it on the table, "I will not allow a threat to go unchecked and uncontrolled in my city Miss Davis. I'm offering you an opportunity and you would be wise to take it." His soul had turned as dangerous as his tone.

"Mr Fury," I said quietly, anger bubbling to the surface, "I don't take well to being threatened." I rose and stepped uncomfortably close to him, "I have been hiding since you were shitting yourself on your mother's tit, if I choose to disappear, you will _never_ find me. I could be right under your nose, and you would never know it. Don't presume that you could succeed where other have continuously failed." I jabbed him in the chest with a finger and retrieved his card from the table. "I will not be controlled Fury, if I come to you for this _opportunity_ then you had better be prepared to make it worth my while." His mouth hardened into a thin white line. He was fuming. I wagged his card in his face.

"Don't call me, I'll call you." I said with a sarcastic smile, then I turned my back to him and left the cafe.


	4. An Ally and The Super Spy

I left the cafe and headed back to my hotel feeling as though I were fast losing control of the situation. I'd been in New York just over a day, and so far I'd been thwarted by Tony Stark's computer, chased and shot at by Iron Man, I'd had a great conversation with someone who wasn't even human and Pirate Morpheus hated me. All I wanted was Hydra, and all I was getting was trouble.

I just reached the door to my room when one of my grievances appeared in his doorway, tall, lean body propped casually against the frame. "They've been in your room. Filled it with devices for spying. I heard down at the reception desk that they've planted a new employee here to keep an eye on you too." Luke told me, his eyes searching. I groaned.

"Beginning to wish I'd never come to New York." I muttered, thinking fast about what I was supposed to do now. "Why _did_ you come to New York?" Luke's eyes were burning with curiosity.

"To find the Avengers. I thought you'd figured that out by now." I snapped "And unless you'd got something that's actually helpful to say, be quiet please Luke, I'm trying to think." I jabbed a finger at my temple, as though I was trying to jog loose an idea and Luke rolled his eyes.

"Is that why Nick wants to spy on you?" He asked, I tried not to to bite his head off, the stress of the moment pressuring me.

"No of course not. He doesn't know why I'm here, though I'm sure he's just a curious as you seem to be," I gave Luke a glare, "Fury wants to spy on because I can do things that scare him, so that makes me an unchecked _threat._ " I took a few breaths to calm myself. In the quiet, a cleaner appeared at the end of the hall and then disappeared into a room, leaving her cleaning trolley in the hall. I glanced quickly at Luke, who had retreated back into the shadows of his room upon the cleaner's arrival, he nodded silently. My own personal spy was an attractive woman, with the reddest hair I have ever seen, and Luke didn't want her around any more than I did. Judging by the wary way he was watching the door she'd vanished behind. His pulsing soul had become colored with anxiety and fear at her arrival, he was desperate not to be noticed.

He cleared his throat softly, "I think that you'd better come in." he murmured, so low that I barely heard him, miss sneaky pants red head wouldn't have had a chance. I pictured her standing with her ear pressed up against the wood, straining to hear any conversation. He stood aside to allow me pass and I quickly reviewed my options. It came down to being trapped in my room which had been bugged out by Fury, going and beating up his spy, or hiding in Luke's room until I could figure out a better plan. Honestly I didn't see that I had any real choice, so I skulked into his room and waited while he shut the door as quietly as possible.

"So, you pulled a vanishing act in the cafe earlier, and now you're pretty darn keen to stay out of sight of Nick's little spy. Any particular reason that you wanna stay off Fury's radar." I said suddenly. I didn't trust Luke, and I suspected that he was only helping me to further his own motives. Certainly I was grateful for the help, but it would probably be best if I cut and run, leaving him out of everything entirely. I was hesitant to do that though. I had a perverse curiosity about him. His strange soul was mesmerizing and the more time I spent with him, the more curious about him I became. Which was dangerous, but also exciting. He was looking at me, evaluating how much he should tell me about his own situation. He gave me a rueful smile.

"I have a somewhat, colorful history with Fury. It is vital to me that he does not discover that I am here." his expression turned dark, "The repercussions of his discovery would ruin me." He seated himself at the small table in his room. I looked around his room, feeling distinctly apprehensive. There was something off about Luke. His soul indicated that he was genuine in his fear of the consequences of discovery, but there was so much more rippling under the surface. As though he were just the tip of an iceberg.

"How long have you been staying in this hotel?" I asked breaking away from his worrisome declaration. I wandered over to look out his window, which overlooked a dirty alley. I was impressed that he even had a window. I didn't. Just old grotty prints of the sky line. Which was impressive, but so over done.

"Just over a year." He replied, to which I was startled. If I'd have been here for a year there would be junk everywhere. I was only living light at the moment due to a literal life change, Normally I was a hoarder. "What on earth do you do all day?" I blurted and he smirked.

"I scheme." He held my eyes, then his smirk turned into a snort, "I read," he corrected, rising to open a cupboard that contained books. Mostly old looking ones, with tattered looking spines and writing that could barely be seen. The cupboard full of antique books didn't seem nearly as strange compared to his soul, which didn't fluctuate even minutely during his little jest. He schemed, and he read. I was becoming increasingly concerned. Who exactly was I dealing with here?

"I know when you're lying." I said suddenly, earning a sharp, lingering look. His eyes narrowed slightly as he took in my declaration. Cautious colors emanating from within him.

"I didn't lie." I had his full attention now. All hints of lightheartedness had vanished. I gave him a long, steady look. "I know." His expression didn't change. He just stood, hands in pockets, staring at me. I broke our gaze and looked out into the dirty alley again. It had just become very tense in the room, and I regretted walking into his door. Not that I had much in the way of choice. Luke might be a _very_ shady character, but he was helping me. I wasn't behaving very grateful.

"I know when you're lying too." He raised an eyebrow, "So perhaps, in the spirit of co-operation, we should stop lying to each other." he suggested and I chuckled. "You mean, we should should stop the blatant bullshit and instead lie by omission." I said archly. He actually laughed.

"Oh I do like you." His eyes twinkled with amusement, I raised my brows at him. "Well thanks. You're not half bad yourself." In reality, I thought that he was more than half bad. There wasn't much about his demeanor that was wholesome and good. Unfortunately, I did find myself attracted to the bad boys. He was looking away, half a smile on his face and I took the chance to look him up and down again. Yep. I sighed, he was extremely good looking.

"The red headed maid, is Natasha Romanov." Luke said suddenly, I glanced up at him and waited to see where he was going with this. So far, even though I could read his soul, he was keeping me on my toes. Something that I couldn't recall _ever_ happening before. "She is an Avenger, but mainly she's Fury's pet spy. When his usual tactics of force fail him, she's his resort to trickery." He was staring at nothing, stuck in a moment of recall.

"How do you know?" If she was an Avenger, then she was a good guy. I tried not to think about what that made Luke. He smiled. "I was once on the receiving end of her trickery. And of Nick's force." he returned his focus to me, "He has a great deal of force. I cannot understand why he's allowed you to walk away without a fight if you're so much of a threat that he has the famous Black Widow keeping track of you." I sighed. Luke clearly knew more about these people than I did, and he seemed willing to level with me about them. I owed it to him to tell, at least most of the truth.

"There was a fight. I said I got beat up didn't I?" I smiled, "What I didn't say is that it was a scuffle between myself and Iron Man." I enjoyed his expression very much at that statement. I felt as though if I could take down Iron Man, I might actually stand a chance at doing some real damage to Hydra. "Though it wasn't Stark who sent Nick after me, I don't think that Tony even knows where the hell I am, let alone that I've been contacted. Nick wants me under his control, but willingly. That's why he's not dragging me to wherever, kicking and screaming. If Stark knew where I was, I'm sure that I'd be dead meat." Luke cocked his head, a disbelieving smile playing on his features.

"You did have an exciting morning." Which was an amazing understatement. "So Fury's giving you a choice?" he asked. I snorted.

"It's not much of a choice. I go jump through his hoops, or he takes me in. Which I take to mean that he's going to lock me away. Or worse." I said scowling, "Either way, it won't end so well for everybody."

"You are _much_ more interesting than you seem." Luke commented, peering at me shrewdly. I laughed. "Yes I suppose I am." I sat down on the little couch and watched him carefully. I'd roused his sense of curiosity, he had relaxed a little and seemed willing to engage conversation with me. "Why are you helping me?" I asked, and he smiled, like he knew exactly what I was up to and was willing to indulge me.

"I find this situation most amusing. It has been very dull for me here, and I would quite like to perpetuate the excitement. To that end, I believe that I can be of much more help to you. Should you wish it of course." He was sincere with his response, and his offer. But that made me even more suspicious of his motives. I didn't see that Luke had a whole lot of humanity in his soul. He wasn't helping me out of the goodness of his heart. He was operating with an agenda and I had the feeling that I'd just become part of his schemes. He was offering me what I needed the most, but at what cost?

"Well, I can't go refusing offers of help at this point, though I think I'd be foolish to trust you." I said bluntly, laying it all out and hoping that he could give me something more tangible to work with. Tell me that he was he was an undercover cop, or a superhero in disguise. Tell me that he was something good and morally sound. Something to ease my anxiety. He just looked at me with a delighted smile.

"You wouldn't be the first person to accept my help without trusting me." he told me, "and I'm sure you won't be the last." His eyes flashed with merriment. I closed my eyes, knowing that I was courting disaster. "So, what do you want? For helping me, I mean." So far he'd helped me without anything in return. Maybe this would draw the line, make clear his role in the world. Make it easy for me to say yes, or no. He tensed.

"Keep me anonymous. Fury, Romanov, no-one can know about me. Not any of the Avengers, if any of them suspect, lead them astray." He fixed me with an incredibly intense look, "It means my life if they find out about me. Can you do this?" I furrowed my brow as I considered it. First, was it actually within my power do be able to do something like that? I'd kept myself invisible for decades, but could I do it for someone else. I'd been accessing computer systems, looking, changing, completely falsifying information since I'd been with Kree. If I had to, I could entirely erase him from any system. Even one kept by a Friday, though it would be very difficult. If they saw him, I could shift, make them see someone else and lead them away. I could even change his face for a limited amount of time. It wouldn't be easy, but I could make him cease to exist to anyone. The question was, should I?

He was asking me to keep him a secret. The reason could be good. Or they could be very bad. So far, from what I'd seen of Luke, he wasn't remotely human, despite his pretty packaging. His soul wasn't like anything I'd seen. I knew that he resented the Avengers, he'd been on Fury's hit list, he was cold, selfish and everything about him screamed dangerous. He had secrets, an agenda and scheming was a way of passing time to him. I didn't know his history, his story, his motivations. I knew next to nothing about him, and what I did know, made me believe that maybe, he could be a bad guy. I saw a potential for great evil in his soul, he'd hated so much that the goodness was whittled down to nothing. But then, I'd encountered one of the good guys. One of the heroes. One of the team that made the world swoon. And he'd shot me in the back with a repulsor blast. I decided that I'd just have to take it as it comes. If he was good, then great, and if he was bad, I'd simply have to ruin him just like I was planning on ruining Hydra.

"I'll keep you invisible." I sighed. Trust or not, we were allies now. For as long as he could help me, I'd make sure that he didn't exist. I tilted my head, trying to look at him objectively while he smiled triumphantly. If nothing else, this partnership promised to be extremely interesting.

"So, to get down to brass tacks, I want to find the Avengers, which is unrealistic enough as it is, but might get a little difficult now that I've got one of them tailing me." I tapped my fingers on Luke's couch while I considered what I was going to do. After completely failing at finding information on Stark's database last night, I had to figure out what I was going to do next. The plan was to raid the Avenger's systems for relevant Hydra information, but I'd spewed on one of them, and the other was probably rifling through my stuff as we spoke, and going to Virginia to sift through Pentagon files for possibly non existent Hydra conspiracy tid-bits sounded exhausting. I looked thoughtfully up at Luke.

"If you're going to help me, now would be a good time to start." I told him. He rolled his eyes.

"Yes yes, I'm thinking on it. Nick Fury could gain you access to the Avengers. I believe that it was he who assembled them together as a team to start with-"

"Yeah, when aliens tried take over the planet." I interrupted. He flinched, and his soul briefly became inflamed with disgust and shame. He forced a grim smile and looked away, I narrowed my eyes at him, he ignored me. Everyone had an opinion on the alien invasion, but I'd never seen someone feel ashamed of it before. "Could I just beat it out of him?" I inquired. Nick Fury was intimidating as hell, but he was still human. Luke shook his head.

"No, I have a feeling that Fury will die before divulging secrets. Even if dying takes months. Besides, an attack on Fury will mean having all of his underlings out for your blood. An unwanted hassle." He started to pace, and I found the action oddly comforting. Despite what I saw in his soul, there were some very obvious human traits that he exhibited. "If you use the avenue of violence, it's possible that you could be subdued and imprisoned before the Avengers even get involved."

"What about stealth?" I asked, I could probably use my soul to find out where Nick was located, then track him down, and infiltrate the computer programming to get what I need. I wondered if Natasha had a smart phone with her, if she'd used it to contact Nick, it might be possible for me to track him through it. Though the last time I'd tried something similar, it had been a very frightening experience. There was a limit to what I was willing to do with my soul by way of computers. I'd made the mistake of trying to freely traverse the Internet once. It had been horrible, there was such a massive flow of data that it was impossible to decipher any sense out of it, and it all had moved so quickly that I'd been carried away with it and ended up popping out of a server on the other side of the planet. I watched Luke go back and forth and wondered just how much I should tell him about my abilities.

"How stealthy can you be?" He asked, I pulled a face at him, "As stealthy as I need to be." I said ambiguously, he actually rubbed his temples in response. I was frustrating him. While his eyes were closed, I shifted. Changing myself to an exact replica of Nick Fury. I was even ninety percent certain that I'd put the eye patch on the right side of his face. When Luke's eyes opened and he looked at me, he actually took several steps backwards. "I do stealth and deceit, rather well actually." I said in Fury's angry, deep voice and Luke let out an explosive sigh, hand over his heart. He was watching me with an expectant, wary expression. Like he expected me to grow another head. Which, technically, I could. I relaxed, and let the shift go, melting into my normal physicality with a smirk on my face.

"Interesting." Luke said sharing my grin, "So you're a shape shifter." He tapped his chin thoughtfully. I shrugged casually. "Among other things." I said.

"Unfortunately, it's irrelevant. You don't know enough about Fury to properly imitate him, it would be far too risky. Nick has planned for every contingency, there's no doubt in my mind that you would quickly be discovered." He returned to his aggravated pacing, he was right and it irritating me.

"Well what would you do then?" I snapped, crossing my arms. He paused and shrugged at me nonchalantly. "I would go and work for him. Let him believe that he is in control, but work with my own goals in mind. People are easy to control when you do whatever they want you to." He said dismissively. I wanted to argue with him, but I couldn't because he was right again. I knew as surely as he did that people were blind to everything except their own desires and wants, and that they could be used effectively as long as they were kept happy. I let my head fall back and stared at the ceiling. It made so much sense now that I thought about it. Fury created the Avengers, he had a mole in Stark's tower, so there was a good chance that he had them keeping tabs on the other Avengers. Not to mention the one working for him.

"Ok so you've got a point." I admitted. Luke nodded as though it were obvious. I gave him a dirty look. "So I'll go work for the super spy." I wondered if I'd have figured it out on my own. I doubted it. I wouldn't have been able to see past Nick's offensive behavior.

"It's a good plan." I said as Luke sat down at the table, I eyeballed him. "Ever heard of Astral Projection?" I asked, he paid close attention to me. "Yes of course." He said, wary anticipation marring his features.

"Good. I'm going to check on that red head." Then I stood up entirely out of my body, I was going to find that Natasha woman first and see what she was up to. I might learn enough to give me an edge when I spoke with Nick Fury next. My body lay passed out on Luke's couch, and he was looking at it with a look of mild surprise on his face. I found this kind of amusing, and hoped that he wouldn't mess around with my inert self while I was gone. I moved out of his room and into the hall, nearly passing through her. She was standing just outside my door, speaking into her watch.

"She hasn't been back into her room. I saw her standing outside the door, but she's gone now. I think she was suspicious of my presence and bolted. The door across from hers was open, it's possible that she took refuge inside." She said. I wondered what she'd do, would she try to go into Luke's room. I couldn't actually let her, I'd promised Luke that he'd be non existent. It was Nick Fury's voice that crackled out of her watch. "Go into her room, see if you can find anything informative." He said. I scowled, but followed her through my door. He cover as a cleaner was a good choice. I wouldn't have been bothered by finding a cleaner in my room. From this moment on though, I was going to be suspicious of every single cleaner I ever saw anywhere near my room.

All of my belongings were still in my backpack, I'd never bothered getting much out, figuring that I wouldn't be here that long. After a quick poke around the room, she came to this conclusion and just tipped the contents of the bag on the floor, picking through the stuff. She returned my clothes, lingering over a book on Greek mythology, looking at the page that I'd dog-eared about Hercules and the Hydra. Then she came across what looked like a coaster. A small, circular disc of poured resin, and locked inside was the delicate foliage of a rare herb with heart shaped leaves. She frowned at it, not fully comprehending what she was seeing. She took photos of everything and then she shoved it, and the rest of my junk, receipts, the information leaflet I'd gotten from the airport, pens and a crossword puzzle book that I'd used on the flight, back into the bag.

I watched her pull my clothes out of the bin and separate them from the other rubbish, she lingered over the repulsor burns in the back of my shirt and jacket with a disapproving look on her face, then she quickly gave the room a once over, finishing with straightening the sheets, and taking out the trash. She dropped the bag of my clothes in a bucket under the cleaning trolley. I knew that they would be inspected for my DNA. I wondered if Fury knew that I'd shifted my structure to contain Vibranium or if Stark had kept that little nugget of info to himself. They weren't likely to find anything. Only the Kree were advanced enough to comprehend what had been done with my DNA. Hydra had expressed great frustration at being unable to unravel it's secrets.

I drifted back into Luke's room. He was sitting down at his table, a bored look on his face while he drummed his long fingers on the table surface. I sank into myself, physically stirring and sitting up straight. Luke straightened and looked at me sideways, just waiting for me to fill him in. I put a hand up to rub the back of my neck and gave him a weary look.

"She was just going through my stuff." I yawned, stretching out. "Would have liked for her to handle it with a bit more care, but she was just trying to avoid being caught I suppose."

"So, you're going to work for Fury?" he asked, cutting across my chatty bullshit and getting directly to the point. "Yes. Makes sense, and it's better than my other option, which is a total minefield of problems." I said, standing up and stretching again, "I'm not sure what Fury has planned for me, so I think it'd be for the best to leave here, get him well away from you."

"It is of no matter. I made arrangements to go elsewhere the moment I saw him." he murmured. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. I had a feeling that unpicking his secrets would lead me to discover something that I could definitely use to my benefit.

"How will I contact you?" I asked, he smirked and held out a piece of paper. I reached for it. It had phone number and address scrawled on it. "Don't lose that and remember, I am trusting you with my existence."

"I'm trusting you more than I should too Luke. We'll manage. I won't contact you if I think there's a risk, and when I do I'll probably do it looking like someone else." I winked and put the paper in my pocket, "I'll also go through their computer data storage and see if they've already got anything regarding you and erase it." Luke's eyes glittered as he considered my words.

"How will I know that I'm speaking to you?" He asked and I shrugged, "You'll figure it out." I said, and rose to leave.

"I know you do not trust me, but trust me on this, be careful regarding Nick Fury. There are none more deceptive nor more apt at manipulation than he." I listened to his soft, cool voice with an ominous feeling creeping up my back, and then, without another word, I left. Vanishing out the door without so much as a glance back. I suppose I could have shaken his hand or something, but I just didn't want to seem too friendly with him when I didn't trust him. He'd been so hostile when we'd first met and then practically changed into a whole different person once he realized that I as a bit more than the average foreigner. It would be more beneficial to me to keep him guessing as much as possible.

I wandered up to Natasha's cleaning cart and lingered awkwardly. She emerged from the room next to mine and took an involuntary step back when she spotted me. I gave her my most brilliant smile. "Hello Miss, would you have the time please?" I asked, gesturing at her watch, her eyes flicked about, assessing the situation before she stuttered out, "I, uh, yes, sure." She looked at her wrist and I gasped theatrically.

"Oh my goodness, is that one of those new watches that Apple are releasing?" I leaned in closer to get a good look at it, hands hovering nearby, Natasha looked at me, wide eyed, and absolutely ready to beat the crap out of me at any wrong move. I smiled and said, "Ok Fury, let's talk business." Natasha's cute little mouth dropped open and her watch crackled with Nick's voice, I had to admit, he was very quick to adapt.

"I am delighted to hear that Miss Davis, please, allow Agent Romanov to escort you to me." He said, then he addressed the red head "Agent, please bring Brooke down to headquarters immediately." Natasha shot me a suspicious look before responding, "Yes Sir." She then ditched her maid apron, wadding it up and tossing it in the trash.

"Just lemme duck into my room and grab that stuff that you've already been through. You'll need a moment to get my clothes out from under the trolley anyways." I hopped down from the cart and wallowed in my petty satisfaction while I went for my backpack. I left Romanov staring after me with her eyebrows up and a wrinkle of concern on her forehead.


	5. SHIELD

To my surprise, Agent Romanov took me to a dry cleaners. We went directly through the store, the tiny old man at the front desk didn't even blink. Romanov melted through a rack of clothes at the back of the store, I followed feeling somewhat bemused, and when she put her hand into the wall my eyebrows shot up disbelievingly. She sensed my reaction and her lips tweaked into a smile.

"Holographic technology. There's a thumb print scanner in there." She said. I nodded in understanding. A thumb print scanner meant no-one unauthorized could gain access, even if they made it through the clothes and guessed that there was a hole in the wall disguised with holographic projection. Something beeped and Natasha spoke again, "Agent Natasha Romanov, code name, Black Widow." There was a pause before a section of the back wall slid open to allow us through. Thumb print, and voice recognition. All of the security stops were pulled out for this facility.

I was kind of surprised. The place we'd entered was far less... sleek than I expected of a secret agency. Shoddy brickwork, half plastered walls. The corridor floor was concrete, decorated with the odd mysterious stain, and surprisingly few people wandered about. I spotted about five in total, swiping at tablets, shooting me curious glances, ducking through doorways. We went up a few stairs and ended up in a large windowless room, as shabby as the rest of the building that I'd seen, but bigger. And inside, sitting at a large desk, was Nick Fury. I waltzed into the room, threw my backpack down and sank into a chair in front of his desk. Fury nodded at Romanov and she backed out of the room, closing the door behind her.

"Well Nick, here I am, unable to terrorize the city as an unknown threat." I waved my hands about sarcastically, "By the way, am I gonna get paid for this? Because I eat _a lot_ and food costs." sure, I had a mission, but a little financial security goes a long way. I looked around his office, which was fairly bare of anything interesting. A large screen on the wall to my right for video conferences I guessed, a couple of stacks of chairs to my left, for large gatherings in his office. Bookcase behind the desk. Nothing really personal or sentimental. Kind of a let down. I couldn't learn much from my surroundings. I kept my soul to myself at this time. I was already weary from Soul Seeing and shifting with Luke. I needed to use my remaining energy responsibly, Or I feared I would pass out suddenly and wake up in a cell.

"All your needs will be catered for while you are here and a small income will be provided." Which meant, we don't trust you, so we're not gonna let you buy anymore than a packet of peanuts at a time. "As to you being a threat, so far all I know is that you're capable of superhuman things, and I'm not even entirely clear on what they are. You have no records, of any description, I can't even track your financial history." He shifted in his chair. I don't believe that he much enjoyed being so in the dark. He leaned forward, elbows on desk, hands together, his chin resting on his fingertips. "I think you'd better do some explaining." I crossed my arms.

"Let's a have a look at this from my end shall we? You pop up out of nowhere and get all passive aggressive, deciding that since you don't know about me, I must therefore be a threat. Do you know how insulting that is? I bet you don't know Klingon either, are they a threat Fury? Quick, look out for those Klingons on the starboard bow." I was laying it on thicker than I needed to, but I felt Nick deserved it for his condescending attitude towards me. "Then you tell me that you want to control me, because apparently that's how you win all the girls. Then you give me a great choice of being your _pet_ " I spat the word at him, "Or being taken in. Seriously I'm swooning. And of course, because you're some sort of paranoid freak, you bug out my hotel room and set your red head to watch me. As it stands, your behavior towards me has been far more threatening than mine's been, even to Stark, So why don't you tell me, why the hell I should trust you with any damn explanation." He just stared at me for a very long moment, I could nearly see the cogs of his mind ticking over in his eye. I lifted my eyebrows, unblinking and demanding. Finally, he let out a long sigh.

"I am the Shadow Director of an organization known as SHIELD." he said, frozen faced. "When a god falls to earth, we are the ones who get involved. When an entire sect of humanity starts to mutate, we are the ones to get involved in the dangerous catastrophes that are sometimes caused. When something strange happens, with no explanation, we are the ones who investigate, and you definitely merit investigation. "

"Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division. Yes, I've come across a mention of it before. Basically, you're the shield for humanity against all of the really weird shit that happens. But you were Acting Director weren't you, what's this Shadow Director nonsense?" I asked. He shot me a dark look. I wasn't supposed to already know what he was telling me. I considered, not for the first time, that I may have an attitude problem. I smiled slightly and glanced up at him, "I came across a record of business in Stark's database." I explained. His forehead creased.

"A man named Phil is now the Acting Director. Shield needed to be rebuilt and reshaped, turned into something new. For that it needed a new Director. My way of running things, was flawed. Phil cannot be corrupted. He will run it the way it needs. I merely gather intelligence and sneak about on his behalf. I just get to do it with authority." Nick Fury described himself as a sneak with power. I had a feeling that Luke would find that funny. I also suspected that Nick wasn't quite telling me everything. Why did Shield need rebuilding? "What else did you come across in Stark's database Brooke?" He said my first name casually, but it didn't escape me that it was the first time he'd used it. I believed that he was trying the trade technique. He'll answer my questions and I'll answer his, but his query had dangerous possibilities. I'd come across plenty, none of which I was supposed to know. In the spirit of Stark's confidential files, I wouldn't be sharing much with Nick. Tony was his adviser, if he wanted Nick to know anything in particular, he could tell him personally. "Not what I was looking for." I said to throw him off track. Of course, I wasn't fooling him. I really didn't think that Luke had been bullshitting when he'd said that Fury was the most deceptive person ever, so he'd have to know that I was trying to steer the conversation.

"What were you looking for?" He was unphased by my redirection, seemingly willing to go wherever this conversation would take him. I guessed that he wouldn't be letting me go far until he had all the information he wanted, so he could afford to take a very relaxed approach to this interrogation. I thought back to the photos of my stuff that Romanov had taken and decided that there wasn't too much point in evading his questions or lying to him. The truth would come out sooner rather than later. I fixed him with determined stare.

"Hydra." I stated factually. He sat up very straight, and stared at me with a wide eye. I did not flinch under the intensity of his gaze. "Hydra." He repeated, it was as though I was speaking a foreign language. I sighed.

"Well, if you want to be technical, I was actually looking for Hydra related information. Or a lead to the official Avengers Headquarters, which may have Hydra related information. Honestly I don't truly know if they have what I'm looking for, it's just an educated guess, seeing as Hydra's main adversary back in the day was Captain America, and he's now an Avenger." I spoke very casually, as though I were talking about that time I tried a jalapeno, and not talking about the most dangerous organization in the world. I was quite amusing to watch Nick grasp the concept of a random Australian speak about things that were not publicly known.

"What exactly do you know about Hydra?" He asked me, eyebrow raised over his patch. I thought back to what I'd learned while I was their captive.

"Well, I know that, scientifically speaking, they have no sense of ethics or morals when it comes to experimentation and discovery. Hydra aren't known for compassion either. They don't tend to identify with their fellow humans, seeing them more as useful tools, a means to an end even." My stomach began to turn, remembering the gruesome things that I had experienced and even witnessed.

"A consequence of their less than savory attitude, was that their human experimentation yielded some promising results. Schmidt allowed Zola a great deal of liberty when it came to experimenting on their prisoners of war. He came so far so quick that I shudder to think what could have been created had Captain America not launched a vendetta against them." My voice had dropped to a whisper and Nick was watching me, hanging on to every word. "After Johann's disappearance, Lieutenant Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker seized control, taking steps to place Hydra operatives in crucial positions of importance across the globe. He's ruthless, and dare I say, an even better strategist than Schmidt, taking extreme measures to protect himself from lethal attack. Hydra will have continued to gain mass and power since he has taken the reigns." My stomach churned and I got a sick feeling in the pit of my gut. I knew all too well the things that the Baron was capable of.

"Baron Von Strucker is dead." Nick informed me. I stared at him, "What? How did you contain it?" I blurted feeling panicky, "Was a vaccine created, how many casualties were there?" Fury stared at me blankly and it dawned on me that he had no idea what I was on about. I began laughing, earning an alarmed look from the Shadow Director.

"If you don't know what I'm talking about Nick, then the Baron is not dead." I said, fear creeping through me. Strucker had managed to fake his own death, the amount that he could accomplish whilst off the radar of anyone who could stop him, was a daunting prospect. Fury's eyes were wide and I gulped and continued. "The Baron is infected with the Death Spore Virus, which not only allows him to kill with just a touch, it will also be released on the moment of his death, threatening life on Earth." Nick's mouth formed an 'o' for a split second, then he pushed a button and barked at someone to investigate the Death Spore Virus and to do a facial recognition search for the Baron. I was just glad that he was taking me seriously. He motioned for me to go on.

"When Hydra became independent from Hitler, it ceased being the scientific branch of an organisation and became the head, so it developed it's own scientific branch know as AIM, or Advanced Idea Mechanics." I continued my story, he tilted his head and interrupted me, "AIM was founded by a young man named Aldrich Killian." He said carefully, I shook my head.

"No, Aldrich would simply be the new Scientist Supreme. He'd be the new ideas man, not the man behind the first idea." I stated, starting to feel sicker as the memories of AIM's work under Hydra's orders began to resurface.

"Aldrich is nothing now, unless he's faked his death as well. To our knowledge, AIM and Hydra haven't been associated with each other." Fury muttered, almost to himself. I shrugged. "Well, AIM might be independent of Hydra now, but Hydra's the reason they even exist." I said, "I was a test subject with them from 1940 to 1955. I know exactly who was experimenting on me, and on whose orders they were doing it." Nick was staring at me. Comprehension filtering through his mind.

"How old are you Miss Davis?" He asked me quietly. I smirked at him. "Well, I can't give you a precise age, but somewhere between 180 and 200 years old. Approximately." He opened his mouth to say something, but his attention suddenly became distracted by someone shouting something at him through his desk console. He shot me an apprehensive look.

"Would you care to join me in the lab?" He asked. I smiled, the call had come through from a laboratory, it hadn't taken long for them to process my clothes for my DNA. I didn't think they'd have had enough time to get any real information already, but I didn't exactly know what kind of technology Nick had access to.

We left the office, marched down hallways and went up a few floors in an elevator. The door swished open and I was presented with a very sleek and modern interior. Clean floors, white walls and a design that pretty much fitted into my expectations of a laboratory in a secret agency. Despite the obvious passing of time, separation of species and the scientific advances that had been made, the whole scene was eerily familiar of my time with the Kree and even with Hydra. The sterile smells, the sounds. Soft humming, drips. Even the look of the equipment. Anxiety began to creep through me and I felt my body begin to shift as a result. My hesitation to come here had been based on the fear that Nick would decide that I was better off in a cage. The similarities of this lab, to the labs of my past were exacerbating that fear. My skin literally crawled as it shuddered through various substances that were retained in my molecular memory. I had to pause, taking deep, steady breaths to stabilize myself. Fury was watching me with great interest. He missed nothing. Though, despite his obvious keen interest in my fluctuating shift, he allowed me to pretend it wasn't happening. I was slowly regained control, but the multiple, frequent shifts had burned through my energy stores. I could feel my stomach hollowing out, hunger gnawing away at me.

We went through a door at the back of the huge lab, into another office. This one looked distinctly doctory. Models of human body parts. A skeleton dangling from a frame in the corner. Anatomically correct posters. _Biologist_ I thought to myself. What set this room apart from a standard doctors office were the high tech doo dads lining the bench on the far side of the room, the large screen on the wall and all of the books laying around, piled up in teetering stacks and thrown half open wherever there was room. I peered at them with mild interest. A lot of books featuring advanced biology, some on theoretical biological sciences.

"Computers are fine, but I just like books, they're such a solid source of information." Said a voice. I turned around, there was a frazzled looking woman seated at the desk, swiping away on her tablet. I noted that my trash clothes were laying in a pile on the floor next to her desk, "Besides, after the whole Ultron thing, you just can't count on all of the information staying on the computer." Nick suddenly cleared his throat very loudly and gave the woman a look, which very clearly said to shut the hell up. I had no idea what an ultron was, but I was pretty sure she wasn't supposed to have mentioned it to me. I shrugged. Personally, I loved that everyone one was storing their information in computers now. Made it easier for me.

"Jess, this is Brooke Davis." Nick gestured towards me, "Miss Davis, this is Jess. She's one of the brightest biologists to ever come out of the academy." Jess's smile faltered as she figured out who I was. She glanced to the pile of clothes and back at me. I nodded at her. She groaned.

"So," I picked my top off the floor and looked at the hole in it. My back had blistered after Tony's repulsor blast. Bits of skin were stuck to the t-shirt. I pulled a face, remembering how much it had stung. Fortunately shifting heals all manner of wounds and I was no stranger to pain. I looked at Jess. "How'd you go with my DNA?" Her mouth dropped open and she glanced at Nick, uncertain as to how to proceed. Nick's jaw clenched. He was not loving my attitude, but he gave a curt nod at Jess, indicating that she should respond.

"There's, nothing." She said, almost angrily, "And there's everything!" Nick's focus sharpened. I had the feeling that I presented a complex riddle that she was determined to solve. "So far, I've barely had time to look at it, but it's so..." She made a frustrated little noise and pushed a button, an image came up on the screen. We found ourselves looking at the spiraled ladders that were the genetic coding to every individual. Then, the ladders simply fell apart. Cells vibrated in chaotic clusters on the screen, then reforming back into genetic curls, but with different order to what they had been before. This behavior repeated itself. The timing of the change randomized within nano seconds. It could not be predicted. It was a constant, changing motion, and in the time that I watched it, I couldn't spot a single instance that it repeated itself. I was fascinated. Hydra hadn't been able to see even this much, and the Kree had a much different way of studying DNA. To see myself like this, was definitely new. Jess was staring at it, a tic forming in her jaw. Nick was watching, his eyebrows raised so high that they threatened to vanish down the back of his head.

"It changes before I can catalog it, I can't find a pattern, the cells are like nothing I've ever seen! How am I supposed to run an in depth analysis when it's doing _that_?" Jess spat, absolutely disgusted. I thought I saw a ghost of a smile on Nick, before he looked over at me, expecting me to explain. I took a deep breath, "Nick, have you ever heard of an alien race, known as the Kree?" I asked, looking up at him. If I didn't have his full attention before, I definitely had it now.

In the final decades of my time with the Kree, I had been able to Astral Project, escaping the new tortures that they had devised and were inflicting upon me. I'd been able to Project for over half a century now and it was here that I'd learned how easily I could access their systems. However, since I was a prisoner, they saw no need to teach me about their systems or data storage structure, so I had to do a lot of guess work when navigating my way through their computers. I had learned a large portion of their language during my childhood, my understanding of their vocabulary growing as I was able to observe them externally as a spirit, but my comprehension of their literacy was small and eventually I began to grow bored with trying to decipher their streams of information and took to spending time learning by observation. I spent time following the Kree scientists, watching them interact with each other. Sometimes I watched them work on me, and sometimes I couldn't stand it.

I finally grew brave enough to see what was beyond and I left my building for the first time. Beyond the walls in the harsh outdoors. I learned that my building was one of many, dotted across the landscape in regimented rows. I drifted into one of these buildings, only to discover that it was exactly like mine, the difference was what was contained inside. Another prisoner, a test subject. Just like me. I tried to contact them, but though they reacted to the presence of my Soul when I touched theirs, they never knew what it was. It was despairing to finally discover that I wasn't alone, but being entirely unable to reach out. I became convinced that there had to be at least one human I could touch, at least one that would comprehend me.

Each facility held a captive of its own. A human, being subjected to scientific procedures in the name of expanding the Kree's understanding of humanity. I became obsessed. Each session the Kree laid my body out on the laboratory table, I would Project myself away. To another building, encounter the human within its walls. I re-entered the systems. More determined than ever to learn the complexities, to discover if there was a human out there who had endured the same as what I had. I became desperate. I hoped to find another like me. Another who had learned to remove their spirit from the pain and the suffering.

Most I came across didn't live long, unable to withstand the Kree's probing. I discovered that I was their oldest experiment, the only human who had endured and remained whole for so long. Many went violently insane. Becoming a risk to themselves and the Kree scientists responsible for them. These people were put down. I began to despair, but pushed on, becoming more frantic in my search. I became careless and was Projecting to the buildings on the very end of the rows, buildings that it took me over a day to travel to. My scientists became concerned that I was spending so much time unconscious. I believe that they feared that my longevity was nearing its end, it became a possibility that they would terminate me permanently. I recklessly continued my search.

One evening, upon the end of another fruitless journey, I completed my sweep of the final building. This was the last building in the last row. There was nothing from here but stretches of desolate, alien wastelands. My desperation had been to no avail. There was nothing for me. I entered the systems, looking to see if I could access the incoming data, maybe I could evaluate the people they had recently captured, see where they would be contained. If I could narrow my search down, I would not have to search through all the buildings again.

I could not give up. I couldn't stand the thought of being surrounded by so many exactly like me, but still alone in my suffering. But I still couldn't understand the data streams and became more enraged than I'd ever been. My soul achieved a semi physical state during my fury, and the systems suffered, I exploded out of their main console, which popped and sparked, eventually coming aflame. My ire grew, my soul gained mass and power, swelling to occupy the whole building. I was in every room, every crevice, every space inside that torturous place, and I flexed my rage. The building blew outward, all occupants perished, The Kree scientists, the human trapped inside a cage. Anything breathing met its end. The destruction rousing up a mass of dirt and dust, a large cloud of grit blossomed, making the visibility low. At the center of the ruin, my anger ebbed away and I came to comprehend what I'd done. Fearful, and excited, I fled. The implications of what I'd achieved without a corporeal body were enormous. I moved as fast as my soul could. I was so focused on my return point, that I did not notice what was directly in my path and I barged directly into another wandering soul. My conscience mingled with the other. I learned that her name was Shira. And that it meant Hope.


	6. Hydra and My Future

It took a long time to explain myself to Fury. The run down of my abilities, experiences and interactions over a couple hundred of years, stretching on for what seemed like forever. Fury took it all in, stopping me occasionally to clarify something I'd said or to request more in depth explanations. He was very patient, and surprisingly kind. It wasn't easy for me to recount my history. I'd never told anyone, and it was difficult to finally be able to verbalise everything that I'd been through, but as I talked, I felt enlightened. To finally speak the truth about myself after all this time, to know that I wouldn't have to constantly recall my painstakingly elaborate lies when people asked me about myself. The relief was enormous. I did struggle when I spoke about Shira. My voice choked up and my eyes burned with unshed tears. I barely touched the surface of what our relationship had been, but Nick didn't press me for details. Something for which I was extremely grateful.

He was extremely intrigued by my description of molecular manipulation. I guessed that the prospect of someone who could change themselves entirely, and who also had some molecular control over external items, was bound to raise a bit of interest. I think he was privately relieved when I explained the limitations of my shifting gifts though. No one person should have that much power. He was less impressed by my ability to Astral Project though. Possibly because I kept the fact that I could hack computing systems with my spirit to myself. I didn't want him calling Stark to install an artificial intelligence system onto Shields computers. I wanted to have full access to them at my leisure.

Over the next few weeks, I was put through my paces. Natasha led me through fitness testing, which I did abysmally at. My pale, somewhat flabby body flailing its way through her rigorous exercises with practically zero co-ordination. An agent named Maria ensured that I was tested on my logic and problem solving capabilities, I made my way through the problems they gave me with varying degrees of success. I did excel at espionage and stealth, which was no surprise, and my psychological state was assessed through therapy sessions and I was deemed mentally and emotionally stable. I found out later that the stories of my past had given the therapist nightmares.

Jess took many more samples, and devoted herself to the study of my DNA, calling in other scientists for help. I would watch them cramming into her tiny office and think to myself that if any human was going to unlock my genetic secrets, it would be her. She also had me demonstrate various aspects of my Shifting, while I was hooked up to many different machines and monitors. She went above and beyond to make me feel comfortable during this process, which was a welcome relief. It wasn't easy being laid back out on tables and poked with needles, or being taken through my supernatural paces for the satisfaction of others. Even Jess's mindless chatter didn't entirely distract me from the unwelcome waves of nostalgia or unpleasant memories. I soon began having nightmares of my own again.

During my down time, I projected myself into the systems and spent a lot of time scrolling through their data. It turns out, that Luke had the right idea. Giving Fury what he wanted was definitely the way to get what I wanted. The amount of information I discovered about Hydra was phenomenal. The conspiracy theories about Hydra infiltrating the government were bang on. Their infiltration of Shield being the very reason that Nick Fury had ceased being the acting director. Hydra were the very reason that Shield needed to be rebuilt. They'd torn Shield apart from the inside out, even Fury had been left in pieces... Well, ok, he'd been dead. I went through the data with a sense of despair. How could I have been so stupid? Looking for the Hydra base. Pah, idiot. Shield had an enormous listing of known Hydra bases, and they did not have them all. I could do some impressive things, but I could not be in more than one place at a time, and there was no other possible way to crush a beast that was so wide spread. My simple, naive plan, had quickly become very, very complicated. I always knew that this would be a long term mission, one that I was prepared to devote myself to. I just hadn't realized how unbelievably difficult it was going to be set up. I might end up needing more than one lifetime.

When I wasn't being poked, prodded and beaten up, I was left to my own devices. Sort of. I walked out of the facility a lot. It stirred up far too many memories and I liked to regularly remind myself that I was not imprisoned there. An explanation that Nick was rather understanding with. He still had agents tracking me when I left though. It took several random trips for me to establish their tracking protocols. Once I was sure of their strategies, I took a risk and ditched them.

I turned a corner into what I knew to be a very busy street, causing the agent behind me to lose sight of me. Then I ducked under the awning of a nearby cafe, causing the one on the rooftops to lose me. I squatted quickly, vanishing behind a wall of hurried New Yorkers and I knew that the agent over the road couldn't see me either. Quickly I pulled a hat out of my jacket, which I then shrugged out of, leaving it bundled on the ground. I jammed the hat on my head and, as I stood I shifted, careful to adjust my height to below average. I sprouted long blonde hair, shrunk my nose, and gave myself some extra weight. I'd managed to become the opposite of my norm with very little shift energy consumption. Now all the agents would see would be a fat little blonde woman in a tight tank top and a red hat. I slid my soul out momentarily, confirming from their slightly panicky souls, that they no longer had me in their sights, and then I set off with a whistle. I'd memorized the number and address on the little piece of paper before I'd trashed it and I had a mind to update with Luke. I was curious to see what advice he had regarding my Hydra debacle. It had absolutely nothing to do with how attractive and magnetic he was.

Once I got there however, his attractive appeal was sorely tested. I knocked on the door to his room and he answered, swinging the door open with a wild look in his eyes. Fear was rippling through soul, when his eyes clapped on me his mouth popped open, I dropped my shift, returning to my normal appearance and he almost sagged with relief. I stood gaping at him for a moment. He looked just awful. The slacks he had on were scuffed, torn, dirty, bloodied. He had a white, dirty bonds singlet clinging to his torso, and let me tell you, lean he was, skin and bone, certainly not. Slender, tall and built. Wow. Hello muscles. By the time I finally tore my gaze from his chest, I realised he'd been put through the wringer. His arms were bruised, scraped and bleeding, and they were nothing compared to the ruin of his face.

"Holy shit Luke!" I spluttered, staring at the swollen side of his face, the deep gash across his cheek and his glorious black eyes and broken nose.

"Brooke," his eyes darted up and down the halls, "This is unexpected." He let me into his room and I could tell by the wrappers on his little table and stink of antiseptic that he was attempting to patch himself up. I sighed.

"What in the world happened to you?" We sat at his improvised medic station and he grimaced, sucking air through his teeth at the pain that it caused him. I felt a wave of pity wash over me. Though I didn't doubt that it was his completely rotten attitude that had led to this whupping, I knew how much it sucked to be in pain. His soul was rippling with humiliation, and I knew that he wouldn't take kindly to pity, so I didn't offer him any.

"I met some unpleasant people." he said calmly, very carefully peeling a band-aid off the plastic backing, then promptly folding it in on itself, rendering it useless. He gave a very irritated tut and flicked it at the table. I could see that it wasn't his first band-aid fail, several more were laying about. "We had a heated disagreement and there was a harsh exchange of words." He picked the band-aids back up.

"Followed by a harsh exchange of fists from the looks of you." I noted. He was being deliberately obscure, which I found irritating, but not at all surprising. I took the band-aids away from him, "I'll heal you." I said, and before his pride could protest my help, I gave him a smirk, "I much prefer your face when it doesn't look like dog food." He tried to shoot me a dark look, but it was ineffective through his black eyes.

"Now, just relax." I reached forward and lay my hand over his and closed my eyes, regarding his wounds with my soul. I had limited molecular control over foreign items. I could either simply reshape stuff, or I could completely change it. Though once my concentration failed, changed things would revert back to whatever they'd been before my meddling. Reshaping was permanent unless I decided otherwise. Healing was basically just reshaping. I focused on his nose, forcing a change. It gave a nasty crunch as the cartilage re-positioned and Luke grunted. "Shhhh." I murmured absently, patting him his hand, which was cold to the touch.

Healing merely required returning something back to its original state, instead of changing it to something new, I was changing it back. Healing with my soul was far easier and more natural than hurting with my soul. Though I could do that too, it just cost me so much more energy. The swelling around his eyes and on the side of his face shrunk away and the cut on his cheek - which would have needed stitches, not a band-aid- closed, the edges melting together. I had his face back to normal fairly quickly and with a cursory once over, I alleviated the minor scrapes and the bruising on the rest of his body.

"Feel better?" I asked, retreating back into myself, leaving enough of my soul out of place to watch his. He rose and cautiously stretched. My gaze crawled up his long body as it rippled, but my god he was tall. He groaned and smiled with delight. I was glad I'd healed him. He _was_ much better looking when half his face wasn't swollen and purpling. "Oh yes." He slid back into his seat, "that's quite a skill that you have." he commented. I gave him a smile.

"Sure, comes at a price though." on cue, my stomach gave a loud gurgle, "Got anything to eat around here?" I rubbed my shrunken belly and yawned. I wondered if there'd ever be a moment during this lifetime where I wasn't at least a little bit tired and hungry. Luke retrieved a bowl of fruit from the tiny kitchenette and put it down in front of me. I plucked an apple and started munching away.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" he asked me, picking through the rubbish on the table. I choked down a mouthful of crisp goodness.

"Well, I've had an interesting time with Fury and his goons." I said, "They've spent a lot of time studying me -I am rather fascinating you know, and in return, I've been going through their stuff. I've learned loads of things, I even found the answers to what I was looking for to begin with. Bit disappointing though, Hydra is going to be an absolute nightmare to get involved with."

"Hydra?" Luke's head snapped up and he was staring at me, his soul vibrating with alarm, "You failed to mention anything regarding Hydra the last time that we spoke." He hissed, I raised my eyebrows at him.

"Didn't I? Well, to be fair I was under a lot of stress. Why, won't you help me if Hydra's involved?" I began to peel an orange, I did recall our last conversation. I'd barely told him anything in truth. Something about wanting to infiltrate the Avengers Headquarters, but not why. I narrowed my eyes, he was willing to help me square off against heroes, but not Hydra. Maybe he was a baddie, "I should mention that I went to a great deal of trouble to get here unnoticed by Fury." Luke clenched his jaw and his soul went dark. It probably hadn't been a very subtle attempt at blackmail, but I'd do anything to get to Hydra, even if it meant selling out my only ally.

"I will help you as much as I am able," he said through gritted teeth, "but you must understand that it is all circumstantial. The time is coming when I simply cannot."

"And why would that be?" I asked, extremely curious about his high levels of aggravation. He was as frustrated as I'd ever seen a person get.

"You say you know when I am lying?" he shot, I nodded slowly, wondering where he was going with this. The desperation in his soul intensified and he shifted, giving me his full attention, "Then know this to be truth. I _cannot_ tell anyone who I truly am, or from where I originate. Nothing!" He spat. His soul blared with resentment and rage, but he was being honest, "I must remain anonymous to certain parties, Fury, the Avengers, if they discover me, things will become very," he took a deep breath, "very bad." He ran a hand through his already untidy and tangled black hair. I noted that though it could do with a good trim, it didn't actually detract from his overall attractiveness. "Unfortunately, there are those out there who have learned by external means, who I am." His voice grew softer, "and they would use my past, my skill to their own benefit. I must co-operate. Or they will reveal me." he waited for my reaction. I tried putting the pieces together in my head.

"It was Hydra who beat seven shades of shit out of you, wasn't it?" I said quietly, raising my eyebrow. Luke nodded, "and you're saying that Fury and the Avengers discovering that you exist, would be worse than working, against your will, for an organization bent on creating world spread chaos?"

"Yes. That is what I am saying." He shot me a wry smile. Wow. So that's got to be the crappiest catch 22 on record. I now burned with curiosity to know his story. I figured that he may not be able to tell me, but I could learn it independently, as Hydra seemed to have done. "So why are you here and not hunkered down under guard in one of their many bases?" I asked and he gave a bark of laughter.

"Because Strucker is giving me the same choice that Fury gave you, I may either go willingly, or forcefully. I have 24 hours." He said, and I felt my insides turn to ice. Strucker. I was right. He was alive, and somehow he had managed to integrate himself into my life without even knowing that I still existed. Worse still, I wasn't exactly able to tell Fury that I knew the Baron was active again without revealing Luke. "You look worried." Luke noted, and I gave him a vague look.

"If you want to maintain your dignity and pride Luke, you must do whatever Strucker wishes you to do. Even if it seems demeaning. Because if you don't, he has very effective means of humiliating and subjugating you. You'll also need to explain why you've healed up so quickly. The Baron is far more intelligent than he seems" I said quietly. He watched me intently.

"Strucker left after he made his _offer,_ leaving his lackeys to put the pressure on me. They may have left a mark on me, true, but I left them dead. Better for Strucker to believe that they couldn't touch me." I was unmoved by his viciousness. It didn't surprise me in the slightest that Luke was capable of killing, and knowing that he'd killed Hydra agents had me feeling nothing but a savage sort of satisfaction. "Do not concern yourself with my well being as far as the Baron is concerned. It may surprise you to know, but I am more than a match for him." I groaned at Luke's arrogance.

"Just heed my warnings Luke, I have a rather colorful history with our dear Baron and I am all too aware of exactly what he is capable of." I muttered before switching the subject. I had no desire to linger on the topic of Lt. Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker. "So basically, after today, you'll be off somewhere with Hydra, doing Hydra things?"

"Yes. And you shall be with Fury. This is why I am uncertain of my ability to provide you with much help." Luke accepted my subject change without blinking. I tapped my fingers on the table, thinking furiously.

"Why do you still want to help me?" I asked. It didn't make much sense. He gave me a sad smile.

"Perhaps in you I see a chance at redemption." I never figured him for a saint, but I did see a healthy amount of guilt and shame in his soul. I couldn't imagine what bad he might have done to warrant such feeling and the desire for atonement. It must have been fairly drastic though, if the force of emotion radiating off him were to be any indication.

"So you were a bad guy." I murmured and he glanced at me, raising an eyebrow and giving me a chilling smile. "I still am." He then looked away, his mouth setting in a grim line.

I could see that he meant what he said. But I saw that despite the amount of evil inside his soul, there was an equal amount of hope. I brought my hand up and fidgeted with the chain around my neck. I did not want for us to just separate and go our different, extremely opposite, ways. I was becoming so fixated on the enigma that Luke represented that I was willing to go to any lengths to remain in contact with him. I felt that I needed to unravel his mysteries. I also told myself that having an insider with Hydra would be a huge perk.

I pulled the chain from my neck, manipulating the molecules so that it turned into a molten puddle in my hand. The puddle rippled a little before rising up into a small tower. It twisted and turned, changing shape at my will. Luke watched the fluidity of the metal seemingly mesmerized. I separated a small amount from the main body, which I returned to my neck as a slightly shorter chain. "If you wear this," I told Luke, spilling the smaller amount of metallic liquid into his hand, he watched as it rolled across his fingers, twining itself around his pinky finger and solidified into a thin ring, "I'll be able to find you, no matter where you are." He held his hand up, studying the ring in the light with a half smile on his face.

"How can you do this?" He whispered, seemingly enchanted. I smiled, absurdly pleased that he had enjoyed my work. His eyes flicked to mine and I shrugged.

"I've had this metal for so long that it's become tainted with my soul." I fidgeted with the chain again, recalling when I'd first held the metal in my hands as an unrefined lump all those years ago. "It's quite special for many reasons really. But for as long as you wear that ring, you wear a piece of my soul, and I will always be able to track that missing part." His eyes met mine, and he held my gaze for an uncomfortably long time. I glanced away and looked up at his wall clock and grimaced. Fury would be getting really pissed with me right about now.

"That's how you know when I'm lying, you use your soul." He murmured with a smirk, apparently delighted to have figured that out, "That's really quite remarkable for a midgua- I mean a mor-" he stumbled over his words, sighing with frustration. "That's really remarkable." he finished scowling.

"Oh honey, I'm more remarkable than you can even imagine." I said with a wink, ready to wrap up the conversation. The longer I stayed, the more elaborate my lies to Fury were going to have to be. I stood up, "I'd best leave Luke, Fury is going to be... well, furious enough as it is. We'll have to have a chat about my soul and ability to be a human lie detector another time." Luke gave me a brief smile and nodded. "Well, keep that ring on and I guess I'll see you when I have a chance to find you." I opened the door and Luke seemed to remember his courtesies.

"Yes of course." He said graciously, "and I thank you for healing my wounds." I smiled at him.

"Good luck with Hydra." I told him, and then I vanished down the hall.

After a three more weeks of testing and talking and being trapped in the facility because Fury had thrown a shit fit at my insubordination and grounded me like a child, He called me into his office. I took a seat and he plopped a file down on his desk.

"This is you." He said, tapping it with a finger. I raised my eyebrows, and leaned forward to take it. Nick continued to speak, "I believe that, with perseverance and hard work and, of course, _discipline_ ," He shot me a pointed look that I rolled my eyes at, "you will be a formidable force and a great asset." I wondered idly is this was Fury's way of flattering me. I scanned my file, he wasn't flattering me at all. I wasn't thrilled with what it said, apparently living for two centuries didn't make you cleverer than any one else. My intelligence was just as average as my physical appearance. My fitness needed work and my supernatural capabilities needed to be vastly improved. I snarled, curling my lip.

"I'll never be as formidable as this blatant character assassination. Jesus Fury, way to make someone feel good about themselves." I growled, looking up at him. He was watching me with an amused smirk. Sadist.

"There's nothing in there that you didn't already know." He said, lifting his shoulders. I rolled my eyes. He wasn't wrong really. If I were smart enough, I'd have known that Hydra was going to be a long haul operation, and running two blocks from Stark had made my lungs burn like the air was made of acid. My fitness definitely could use the work.

"I'm pretty sure that you can't raise my IQ, so we're stuck with a dull thinker." I remarked, "Raising my fitness level shouldn't be hard. Just painful. I'm interested to know though," Here I crossed my legs and leaned forward, in a slightly sarcastic tone I said, "Just how do you plan on improving my abilities?" I'd always known that technically, I could do more than what I did do. Both with my shifting and with my soul, but the possibilities frightened me. I hadn't wanted to alienate myself from humanity any more than the Kree and Hydra already had. So I'd never really pushed the boundaries of what I could do. The desire to blend in being stronger than the desire to experiment with my differences.

"Oh, _I'm_ not going to improve them." He said, a wry smile on his lips. "There's no-one quite qualified to do that, so I'm going to send you to the same place as I send the others who have the same unique problem." I narrowed my gaze, he shot a pointed look at the file I was holding. I flicked through the pages that described me with painful accuracy, to find the conclusive page at the bottom.

Apparently, Nick had decided that, given my history and abilities, I was to re-locate and join the Avengers Initiative. I sat with my mouth open for a few seconds. The Avengers. I was going to meet the Avengers. I was going to _be_ an Avenger. I jerked my gaze up to Fury, mouth flapping.

" Pack your backpack Davis, you're heading upstate." Fury said with a smirk. I took a deep breath, still struggling to believe what happening. They wanted me to be a hero! Never, in my very long life, had I ever imagined that this would happen.

"When do I leave?" I asked, almost breathlessly. I should have been much more worried at the short laugh that Nick gave me. "In one hour, you'll be traveling with a companion who knows the way."


	7. New Friends and Old Memories

I blew back into Nick's office precisely one hour later, with my backpack stuffed full of my belongings. I'd replaced my ruined clothing and purchased a few extras that I'd been unable to resist. Christmas had come and gone during the time that I was being assessed and I'd taken full advantage of the post Christmas sales. I was wearing an incredible Hulk sweater for my trip upstate. I did wonder briefly if it wasn't a tad awkward to be wearing Avengers merchandise when I met the Avengers, but they couldn't take it as anything other than a compliment right? I bounced toward Nick's desk with an excited smile on my face. There was a man lounging in the chair that I usually occupied, he stood when I flung the door closed.

"Pretty sure I got all my shit together Fury, and Jess has had her one last poke at my veins so I'm good to go," I prattled cheerfully, the man turned around to look at me and I found myself gawking at the face of Tony Stark. "Ah screw me!" I exclaimed, shooting Nick a dark look. Tony's eyebrows raised. He gave me an appraising look.

"Are you sure you've got the right person Fury?" He asked, still looking me over, "She seems small." Fury gave me an amused smirk. "I'm _average_." I insisted quietly.

"Oh I have the right person Stark. This unassuming woman is the same that, ah, gave you some trouble. Try not to let your ego take too much of a hit." Nick said, blinking at me. Or winking at me. I don't know. It's hard to tell with the eye patch and all. I took a deep breath. I shouldn't be too upset really. I was bound to run into Stark again sooner or later. I just hoped he wasn't the type to hold a grudge.

"So um..." I said to Tony, "You'd be my ride then?" I shuffled uncomfortably. How was I going to ride with the same man who I'd thrown up on and knocked out? Tony shrugged. He had yet to smile. I gave Fury a very nasty look and he just smirked at me.

"Yes, I was heading that way anyway as a personal favor to a couple friends. Nick asked me to swing by and pick you up." Stark said. I nodded. He didn't seem to hate me too much. Though goodness knew what he was going to be like once he got me alone.

"Steve says that the new recruits are proving to be very promising, though most of them are away for Christmas holidays, I believe he, Sam and James have remained behind." Fury addressed me, "They will initiate your official training. I expect you to follow your orders and stay out of trouble." I sarcastically saluted him and he handed me a thick file, which I assumed was full of information and instructions, then addressed Tony, "I'd tell you the same, except that I know you'll do whatever you want to. Just be safe." He gave Tony a smile and then dismissed us with a wave of his hand.

Tony and I headed down to the garage level in silence. I felt extremely self conscious and already couldn't wait for the trip to be over. My mind kept reviewing our altercation in slow motion. Especially the part where I'd puked on him. Friday also occupied a large percent of my thoughts. She'd been an enormous and unforeseen problem, but if I put that aside, she really was an astonishing program. I kind of wanted to ask Stark about her, but I feared that would just lead to all sorts of awkward other questions. I decided to go for a general question that might ease the tension.

"So um, were you waiting here long?" I asked haltingly. Tony pressed a button on his keys and a beautiful sports car bleeped at us. He shot me a sideways look as we slid into the seats. I dumped by backpack on the floor at my feet and put on my seat belt.

"Nick doesn't like me hanging around Shield facilities for too long. I have a habit of hacking into his computer systems and learning things that he doesn't want me to know." The car roared to life and we eased up into the street. "Of course, it's a bit insulting, since he's had you camped there for weeks now." I sighed. There was the jab.

"He doesn't let me near any of his computers, tablets, wall panels or phones." I offered weakly. Tony snorted.

"You weren't near any of mine, but you still managed to access confidential files. How _did_ you manage that by the way?" My first experience in New York traffic in a car was a bit worrying. I looked at Tony's profile and tried to ignore everything else.

"Ever heard of Astral Projection?" I asked him, thinking of the easiest way to explain what I could do. He nodded cautiously, " Well, I did that. And then I possessed your computer systems. Sort of. I'd have been able to more, but Friday made it really hard for me. I wasn't there to cause trouble you know. I was just looking for something."

"I know. Fury told me what you were after. You went for the wrong Avenger if you're after Hydra information." The car swerved abruptly and I let out a squeak of terror. Tony glanced at me, "Did you say that my A.I. programming, Friday, made it hard for you?" I nodded, "Good. Be a pointless program otherwise." He said, with a beatific smile. He was instantly more likable. I could see why he was such a playboy and a press magnet.

"She ultimately forced me out, she even completely restricted my access to some data and that has _never_ happened before." It was actually kind of nice to share my frustration over the matter. I was so used to doing whatever I wanted in a computer, Friday had really irked me. But I couldn't talk to Nick about it because I'd decided to keep it from him. In fact, Talking to Tony about it was my only option at this point, because he already knew that I could hack without needing access to a console. "In fact, I think that with practice, I could learn to disable her, though it wouldn't be easy. I should at least be able to maneuver around her. Or maybe mislead her." I said, almost to myself.

"So my programming's the only thing that's been an obstacle to you? Ever?" Stark asked me. I rolled my eyes. Urgh, here was an ego that needed stroking.

"Yes Tony. Every system's been an open book to me, except yours. There are no others that I've come across that have proved to be so difficult. You're incredibly, incredibly special for having created it." Heavy sarcasm loaded my tone, but he just grinned wider. Then his smile faltered.

"I take it that Fury doesn't know that you can go all possessive on computer systems." He stated wryly and I tried not to look to guilty.

"Well no, not technically..." I said nonchalantly, "Stark Tower didn't have what I wanted, but Shield definitely did, and there's no way that Fury would've given me the information and risk me going out on a vendetta, which was what I was planning to do originally." I fiddled with my chain and tried to act casual. "So I omitted to tell him about certain aspects of my Astral Projection abilities... Which let me have unrestricted access to all Shield files. Who wouldn't want that if they were in my place?"

"Fair point." Tony said, and I couldn't help but wonder if he was planning on revealing my little secret or not. I guessed that I'd soon find out if Friday suddenly appeared at Shield and the Avengers Base.

"So, why are you heading to the Base? I thought you were kind of retired or something." I asked, keen to change the subject.

"I'm going to help a couple of the guys with their gear, Rhodey wants an upgrade and Sam reckons his pack still isn't at a hundred percent." He spared me a quick glance before returning his eyes to the road, "Rhodey is War Machine and Sam is Falcon." he clarified. I thought it was nice of him to offer that information, even though I'd already learned the identity of the Avengers in Shield's database. I smiled sudden;y.

"Didn't War Machine spend some time as The Iron Patriot?" I asked, Tony laughed, "Yeah, not James's best look so far." he said mirthfully.

"He looked like yours and Captain America's love child." I agreed, to which Tony laughed harder.

"I will be sure to tell him you said so." He informed me with a cheeky grin and I stuck my tongue out at him. I stared out the window, watching the landscape whip past.

"I, Uh, I'm sorry about your suit." I said breaking the silence. "My bad." Tony shrugged carelessly.

"Honestly, it was a good excuse to refine the development of the next upgraded version. Though I'd prefer it if you kept the fact that you so badly mangled it to yourself."

"Ok, but you can't tell anyone about the vomit."

"Deal." He grinned and gave me a wink. I'm no expert in friendships, but I was pretty sure that we were bonding.

"So, Fury gave me a file to read about you. Kree, Hydra, hiding out in Australia where everything is trying to kill you. That's quite a resume. " he said. I smiled.

"Australia's not really that bad Stark. A bit harsh perhaps, but it's not just one entire death trap of poisonous and toothy things." I paused and thought about it for a moment. "Mostly." I added.

"Bullshit, I have read a lot of damning information about the wildlife there. I will not be making it a holiday destination any time soon." We swung around a turn off and I gripped the handle on the door like my life depended on it.

"This coming from a man who was captured by terrorists, fought an army of aliens, flew through a portal into outer space, had to beat up a scientist supreme who altered his girlfriend, went to war with a bunch of artificially intelligent robots and is currently driving like a bat out of hell in a _very_ expensive death trap? I believe that your priorities of self preservation are ever so slightly jumbled pal." Tony just laughed manically. I gave him a dirty look.

We lapsed into a comfortable silence and I fidgeted with my chain. I could feel the sharp tug of the missing piece of my soul lessening. Since the day after my catch up with Luke, I had felt it moving further away from me. It was a slightly distressing feeling, but not so horrible that I couldn't overcome it. During this drive though, I knew I was getting closer to wherever Hydra had decided to put Luke. Much closer. I didn't recall any of the known Hydra Bases on Shield's database being in this particular area, so it appeared that Luke had been taken to an unknown one.

"Nearly there." Tony commented, bringing me out of my thoughts. I swallowed. Now that it was closer, I felt extremely nervous about meeting the Avengers. Anxiety causing my skin to shift and crawl. Stark shot me an alarmed look. "That is really disarming to watch." he said, "Don't worry, it's just a bunch of ordinary people who can do extraordinary things. You'll be fine." he correctly interpreted my molecular phase as spike in my anxiety.

"Right." I squeaked, "Except one's a soldier from WW2 who's spent 70 years frozen like a tv dinner, one's a omnipotent being that was actually created, my god Frankenstein eat your heart out, and one's a young woman who's powers can't actually be explained in a way that makes sense but they're terrifying anyway." I prattled, clutching the file Nick had given me in a death grip. "Don't get me wrong Stark, but that's about the furthest from ordinary as you can get." Tony snorted.

"Yeah, you're not wrong when it's put like that, but hey, let me put it like this, the newest recruit is someone who can astral project into computing systems and do whatever she wants, up to and including launch nuclear missiles, not to mention the fact that she's sitting shotgun into my car, completely changing her matter make-up in an anxiety attack. Gimme a break Davis, they're all at least as ordinary as you are." He wasn't wrong, and I did calm down a bit. To say I was equal to everyone here would be pushing it, but I definitely was not just your average joe. We pulled up near a large building. It sort of looked like a plane hanger, or maybe a bunker. I couldn't decide. A large A decorated the building and I raised an eyebrow. If I had the courage to interfere with satellite systems, I could have found the large, pretentious Avengers Headquarters all by myself. They were not exactly hiding.

"Wow. Subtle." I said to Stark as we got out of the car. He grinned, "Our leader wears red, white and blue spangled tights. By choice. We don't really _do_ subtle." He had a spring in his step as he took me by the shoulders and steered me towards the building.

"Besides, you've already met the most intimidating hero," he gestured grandly at himself and I rolled my eyes.

"I knocked the most intimidating hero out with one headbutt." I snorted, pretending to be unimpressed. Tony looked at me over his sunglasses, "Yeah, _after_ you threw up all down the front of me." I gulped.

"I'll be good."

As we got near the entrance, somebody came out the door to greet us. A tall, blonde man with a traditional haircut and baby blue eyes approached us. He wore a t-shirt and track-pants. an outfit that I strongly approved of. I stared. He was so broad across the shoulders that he was nearly as wide as he was tall. I did not doubt for a second that I was looking at the most prime specimen in all of human existence. He clapped Tony on the shoulder and Stark's knees buckled. I just stood with my mouth open.

"Stark! We've been expecting you! Fury called ahead to let us know to expect you." He said to Tony, who nodded enthusiastically, before grandly introducing me.

"Brooke, this is Cap, Cap, this is your new recruit." he put his hand in the small of my back and shoved me forward. I stumbled momentarily before dropping my backpack and reaching out to take the proffered hand.

"Miss Davis, good to have you on board. I'm Steven Rogers, but please, call me Steve." I nodded, still staring. Stark casually put a finger under my chin and prompted me to shut my mouth. Steve just smiled in a knowing sort of way. "Please, come on in." He turned to lead us inside the building and I was treated to the back view of him, which was every single bit as good as the front view. I could see that there was indeed an excellent reason to stand behind Steve as an Avenger. That bottom was so tight you could bounce a coin off it. I scooped up my backpack and trotted after Steve, with Tony sniggering in my ear.

Steve led me through the building to what looked to be dorm rooms. I was shown into one at the end of the hall. The doors I passed each had names, Sam, James, Vincent, Wanda. I saw Steve scribbling on a narrow slip of cardboard and push it into a slot on the door. It read, _Brooke._

I felt my body slip and shift as it hit me. I was really here. This was actually happening. I was in the Avengers Headquarters. I was going to train to be an Avenger. I grabbed my neck chain in a death grip and tried not to hyperventilate. All of the molecules in my body were shivering and rearranging. Steve stepped back, alarmed, but Tony, having seen me do something similar in the car, decided to try and comfort me. It was his extreme misfortune to clap me on the back in a supportive action, when I was cycling through a sand shift. At the impact of his hand, my whole body exploded forward and crashed into a sandy heap on the floor. I was so shocked that I stopped panicking. With heroic effort I literally pulled myself together, the shift rippled down my body changing from sand into flesh. Unfortunately for me, I didn't have the presence of mind to reform myself back _into_ my clothes, and so ended up pushing myself up off the floor completely naked except for my chain.

I heard Tony's swearing come to an abrupt halt as soon as he realized what was going on, and when I looked up, Steve was turning a dark shade of purple. They were both standing directly over me and I tried to act as casual as I could while I collected my clothes.

"Oh thank god!" Tony exclaimed, realizing that I was ok and he hadn't just accidentally broken the new recruit, apparently totally at ease with the suddenly naked woman in the hallway. Well, he would be I supposed. Steve didn't say anything, he just kept on changing color. I idly wondered if the Captain was a virgin or not. Tony spared him a glance and began laughing. I sat on the floor and began pulling my clothes back on, trying to suppress giggles. I'd made a hell of an impression.

"I'm good," I managed, pulling my t-shirt over my head, I decided that for the sake of poor Steve, I would act as though nothing had happened. The Captain didn't meet my eyes and his cheeks were still very much flushed. Tony was still laughing. I cleared my throat a bit and he waved a hand at me weakly. I gave Steve a bright smile, like I hadn't just completely fallen apart and then been bare assed in front of Iron Man and Captain America, "So um... What next?"

"Um, we'll let you have a little time to settle in and um," Steve stumbled avoiding my gaze, "then we'll show you around and we can learn a bit more about each other." The color in his face was coming back to normal until Tony said, "I think we've just learned more about Brooke than we ever needed to know." Steve's face reddened again and he shot Tony a dirty look before stalking away. Tony gave me a wink, then followed him along the hall. I went into my newly assigned room, lay down on the bed and laughed until I cried.

A bit later, I'd thrown my backpack into the wardrobe, which was my way of unpacking and settling in, and started flicking through the file. Fury had seen fit to include a brief on each of the Avengers, old and new. Though I already knew much of the content from poking about in Shield's computer, I read it anyway. Comprehending computer data streams and reading were quite different actions. Reading was rather more relaxing. I was incredibly intrigued by this Vision character, or Vincent, as he was known here. Someone created, and not born. I was curious to see whether or not he had a soul, and what it might look like if he did. Nick had included a few paragraphs on what was to be expected of me, which left me scowling. I was going to spend a lot of my time training, which was not a thought that I relished. Spending ages at a time plodding along on a treadmill or doing push-ups wasn't my idea of a good time, which is obviously why I did not already possess the ultra toned and muscled physique of a superhero. I wrinkled my nose, wondering idly how Erskine's Super Soldier Serum might affect me. It probably wouldn't, my body would just shift the foreign molecules out. If I wanted results, I'd have to do the hard yards.

An hour had passed and nobody had been sent to fetch me. My stomach was rumbling and making whale noises, so I decided to take myself on a grand tour and find the kitchen. I slipped out the door and started wandering the halls, hoping at least come across someone who could show me the way since this place was shaping up to be extremely maze like. It wasn't long until I spotted a man I recognized from my file as Sam, or Falcon, dragging his feet along the halls, a towel slung over his shoulders and sweat beading on his face.

"Oh hey! Sweaty guy!" I called and he turned to me, a puzzled look on his face, "I'm starving, could you point me in the direction of the kitchen please?" I smiled while he placed me.

"Australian?" He asked and I nodded. "New recruit." a pause, "Bree?"

"Nah, Brooke." I corrected him. He nodded.

"Right. Cool. I'm Sam." we shook hands and he pointed in the direction that I'd come from, "Kitchen's that way, if you wait a moment though, I'll take you there." We walked back to the rooms and I waited in the hall bouncing on my toes for him to change while my stomach gurgled. He emerged while it was in full ballad mode, and shooting me an amused look, led me on toward the kitchen.

We ended up in a large room with a state of the art kitchen, dining table and breakfast bar, complete with bar stools. Sam pointed me to the pantry and then began raiding the fridge. The pantry was huge and I had just begun devouring the chocolate biscuits when I heard voices in the kitchen.

"Hey there Fly-Boy," Sounded like Tony. "You're the fearless leader Steve, just go get her. Be professional. It'll be fine." He was saying.

"I'm just saying that maybe she wouldn't be all that comfortable that's all. Give it a little more time and it'll be less awkward." Ah, that was Steve. I assumed that they were talking about me and the fact that they'd seen me in the buff.

"Awkward? Did you not see her? Of course you did that's why we're having this conversation," I swear I could hear Tony rolling his eyes, "Cap, the most awkward person there was you. She didn't look all that phased. Just go get her, it's been over an hour, she's well and truly settled." I was stuffing chocolate biscuits in my face when I heard Sam ask, "Are you guys talking about Brooke?" There was a grunt of conformation.

"Oh. Well she's in the pantry listening to you guys talk about her." I emerged from the pantry with the box of biscuits that I'd already half decimated and gave everyone a chocolaty grin.

"Sup fellas?" I asked, Tony grinned, Sam raised his eyebrows at me and Steve began to blush and avoided eye contact.

"Ah Steve was just about to come and get you." Tony said. I snorted, and raised my eyebrows at Steve.

"Oh I thought he was waiting for the awkwardness of seeing me naked to pass." I said tartly. Steve blushed harder and Tony laughed. Sam perked up. "Wait, what?" he asked. At which point Rogers cleared his throat and finally found his voice.

"Never mind that now, we should go through orienteering." He shut Sam's question down smartly. Tony mouthed the word _"later"_ to Sam over Steve's shoulder. I was quite amused by the way the men interacted, I wondered if the rest of the team would be similar.

"So, Fly Boy, how are the wings?" Tony asked Sam conversationally. Sam came around the bench, "They haven't been the same since Scott messed about in the pack. I appreciate you having a look." He said, the the two wandered off and out of the kitchen, leaving Steve and I alone. I saw Steve mentally preparing himself to talk to me face to face. The charming boy next door was replaced with the stern professional. He was still sexy though.

Orienteering was long and boring. I was shown around the Headquarters, advised on emergency protocol, given a timetable and then Steve wanted to go through my capabilities to see what training exercises might best suit me. He took me down to a training room and we stood in the center of the large space.

"Ok, let's see what you've got." He said and I stood awkwardly. I swallowed and felt the pre-anxiety attack tingle under my skin.

"What, now?" I fidgeted with my chain and shuffled my foot. Steve smiled. It was like the sun breaking through the clouds. I didn't know how I was supposed to try and blend in with all of these gorgeous and charming people. Tony, Steve, Sam. I was a weed among the roses.

"Well, yeah. I read a bit about what you can do in Fury's notes, but it'll be helpful to see for myself. After all, that's why you're here." He swung his arms enthusiastically and I pulled a face.

I rolled my chain in my fingers momentarily, then I charged at Rogers. He didn't even blink before taking a defensive stance. I got just within punching range and then shifted, being sure to include my clothes this time, I changed to water and the momentum of my run threw me forward. I hit Steve directly in the face, then splattered to the floor behind him. I quickly pulled myself together, twirling up and coming back to myself. Steve was turning around, quicker than I had anticipated and I barely had time to drop down before he threw a punch. I shifted to my Vibranium infused form and sprang forward, ramming my shoulder into his gut and pile driving him to the floor. He was flicking me over before we'd hit the ground, my concentration broke, the Vibranium faded and I came down with a painful thud and a grunt.

Steve was on me pretty quick, and I became desperate just to get away from him. I shrank down to a rabbit and bolted out from under him, zig-zagging across the room and dropping the shift whilst I skidded to a halt, facing my adversary. It was taking a lot of focus and energy just to include my clothing when I changed, I could feel that I was burning through energy at an unsafe pace. I hadn't been forced to change so often and so quickly since my Hydra days. I was panting and sweaty. My stomach felt hollowed out and fatigue was weighing my arms and legs down, making me slow and clumsy. Barely a minute against Captain America and I thought I was going to faint. I missed going toe to toe with Iron Man.

Steve suddenly ran at me, I swore before dropping down into a protective ball, poisonous quills erupted from my head and exposed back and I become a dangerously spiked ball. They were raised, and made a slight rattling noise as I shivered them threateningly. I felt Steve coming to a stop and in the moments that he was within reach, I pulled my chain from my neck and shaped it into a straight and solid rod, which was slender, but still strong. I whipped my arm out, using the rod to take Steve's legs out from under him while I retracted the quills and leaped to my feet. I heard my blood raging through my body, and my vision started going black.

"Oh shit." I muttered before I crashed to the ground, utterly exhausted.

"Well, you can't say that she doesn't give it her all." I heard someone say. Tony I think it was. Somebody picked me up.

"Is it just me or does she look skinnier than before?" That was probably Sam. The light changed with the motion as I was carried somewhere.

"She's very light." Steve sounded concerned. I was gently placed down. I hadn't passed all the way out, but I was close to it. I was in that strange state just moments before, where everything sounds weird and your body doesn't quite co-operate.

"Food." I breathed, lifting my eyelids barely enough to see. Steve, Sam and Tony were gathered around me in a room that was far too bright.

"What?" Tony asked, leaning closer.

"I need food. Lots of food." I told him. Sam immediately vanished from my line of sight. Steve and Tony began to talk, but I zoned out, just concentrating on staying conscious.

"I got protein bars." Sam announced on his return, balancing stacks of boxes in his arms. "I didn't know if you had any flavor preferences, so I got all of them." He heaved the load onto a table by the bed, boxes falling to the floor and careening off to corners of the room. I seemed to have been taken to some kind of medical room, a very handy thing to have near the training facility I thought.

"Thanks." I told Sam, "Pass me that one." I gestured expansively to the pile and Tony selected a box at random, he took a bar, unwrapped it and handed it to me. I don't think I even chewed it. "Another."

They watched me chomp my way through half of the pile in silence. My body began to visibly fill back out, all the mass I'd burned as energy returned and I perked up. Then they started with the questions.

"So, if you'd have kept going, would you have just wasted away?" Sam.

"What would've happened if you didn't get food?" Steve.

"You know, you'd have had Steve if you'd have kept up for like, a second longer." Tony. Of course.

"I couldn't have kept going Sam, I'd reached my limit. It's been a long time since I had to participate in exercises like that and I'm really unconditioned. I didn't use my physical abilities much after I escaped. Didn't really see the need to." I said, answering the first question. "I'm telling you, I really wish I'd kept it up now." I looked at Tony with a knowing smirk, "There wasn't a single time that I came even close to beating Steve during that exhibition Tony. I think we both know that." I understood that he was feeling a tad inferior seeing as I'd manage to incapacitate him, but not Rogers.

"Shifting burns energy." I said, addressing Steve's query, "The more often I do it, the less energy it will take. It's been so long since I had to do it so frequently that it used a great deal. With training, I'll be able to do much more for much longer. I can replenish energy through food consumption or sleep. Right now, I can either eat the rest of these protein bars and be back in tip top shape, _or_ I can nap for thirty minutes for the same effect. While I sleep, my body pulls molecules from my surrounds. Tiny particles in the air are used to fill out my mass. This is why it takes longer. I need food for a quick recovery. Without it, I lapse into a coma like state while my body replenishes itself." I told him.

"Regenerative properties? So, you heal." Steve stated. I nodded. "Yes, that's right, and since I have limited molecular control, I can heal others too. Though it all costs energy really." They were all silent for a moment until Sam declared, "Oh well that's pretty cool."

"So you've been trained for combat with your abilities before?" Steve questioned. I nodded, grimacing. I'd hoped to avoid this conversation, but it seemed as though we were going to have it anyway.

"Yes. I was with the Kree for over a hundred years-" Sam spluttered out a surprised expletive, "- and when they realized that I had some amount of control over my molecular structure, the nature of the experiments changed. You've heard of the Colosseum in Rome yes? Well the Kree, as advanced as they were with their technology, could never to evolve past enjoying brutal violence and gore as part of their regular entertainment. So, I was transformed into one of their gladiators, as it were. They wished to study my survival behavior once I had changed to something beyond an average human, to see how it fared when compared to unchanged humans."

The men were all watching me with expectant expressions. I smiled and I reached for another protein bar. Looked like story time to me.

I was still. My heart raced and I forced myself to control my breathing. A breeze blew across the testing arena, stirring up the dirt. I had my eyes closed and was trying to focus. I had to block out the external noise and concentrate on the feeling. I heard the noise of a crowd. Excited shrieks and murmured conversations humming steadily in a background of death screams, grunts of exertion, obscenities uttered in languages that I didn't understand and sometimes, prayers. There was the noise of weapons and armor clashing, and the sound of the monsters erupting from the dirt, roaring and claiming another victim.

I could feel it, a rumble in the earth. Seemingly subtle but quickly growing in force. I had to bend my knees and ride the movement of the soil to stay upright. I counted down the moments in my head, and it the conclusive moment I flung my long staff down, gripping it in my hands as a monstrous set of jaws burst forth from the soil beneath me, I quickly levered my feet to ride the length of the my weapon as I rose up on the face of the beast. As soon as I felt the pause that meant we'd reach our peak, I leaped from the animal's face, straightened my body and discarded the staff. plummeting directly down into the retreating maw, I shifted as I fell, changing myself to a metal that was impervious to the corrosive nature of the Worm's saliva. And then, very suddenly, I was hurtling through the creatures teeth.

My toes impaled the back of the throat, but the force of my fall kept me moving down, tearing a jagged gash in the Worm's esophagus. The mouth closed, leaving me in constricting darkness, and I felt the throat muscles contracting, working to dislodge me and swallow me down. However I remained firmly stuck, all it's efforts served to do was to stop the blood from the wound build up around me. I could feel the Worm thrashing and knew that I had limited time before it sought refuge beneath the soil again, so I ignored the suffocating place that I had gotten myself into and turned my focus inward. Long spikes sprouted from my torso, jabbing all the way through the flesh. The noise coming from the monster was indescribable. I had severed the vocal chords with my spikes, but it still tried to scream. Seeking to finish this murder quickly, I redirected my thoughts within. I began to lessen the distance between the spikes, they soon more resembles blades all perfectly lined up with one and other. Then that space was filled, completely severing the monsters head. And as I pushed it away, I took lusty breaths of the air and watched the Worm's head roll away in the dirt. My steel skirt retracted back into my body and I jumped from the falling corpse, landing with a roll.

Cheers and screams filled the air, and though I knew that they were for me, I didn't revel in it. I was not fighting for adoration. I was fighting for survival. A small distance from me, I watched a small group of gladiators finishing off another Worm, using their varied skills and teamwork, they had the creature trapped on the surface and were cautiously darting in and jabbing or slicing at it. It was covered in lacerations and stab wounds and had all but ceased to struggle. Shortly, it would finish bleeding out and finally die. I tried not to watch the dark woman dart in and poke it again, I tried not to notice her smile. I fought to ignore her enjoyment of the power she had over the stupid, helpless animal. Instead of observing her cruelty, I strode over to them, snatched the spear from her hands and using all of my strength, I sank the tip of it through the Worm's body and into its heart, killing it instantly. I turned to glare at Shira, but her hands were over her mouth, and she stared at me, eyes filled with horror at what had been done. The blood lust had left her and now she stood, overwhelmed with guilt. I looked at her. Her perfect ebony skin was torn and bloodied, her dark hair was matted with blood and dirt and her lovely face was contorted into an expression of despair. My anger and disgust at her left me and I wrapped my arms around her. She broke and began to sob, her shoulder shaking. I stroked her filthy hair and rocked her body.

"Hush," I whispered, her language sounding awkward on my lips, "Hush my loved one."


	8. The Baron and The Speedster

Late in the evening, I quickly strolled down the street. It had been six months since I'd become an Avenger and I'd perfected sneaking out. I rarely had the time to go far, but I needed to keep in touch with Luke so I considered it to be a calculated risk. So far I'd only managed to contact him four times since Fury had sent me upstate, and they hadn't turned out to be very productive visits. The Baron was making Luke work very hard to win his trust.

I didn't look like myself. I had long brown hair, artfully mussed and hanging to my waist. My face was very pretty and laden with make-up. The dress I wore was tiny and clung to all of the foreign curves of my body like it was painted on. I reached the bar, the irresistible tug of that little piece of my soul prompting me inside. I threw a few flirty looks about and spared some smiles for the patrons inside, and was almost surprised with myself when I managed to spot each of the undercover Hydra agents. Steve's training was paying off. I spotted who I was looking for, and made a beeline for the tall, dark haired man sitting in a shadowy corner. He saw me approach, his eyes crawled up and down my body approvingly, the corner of his mouth lifting in a smirk. I bent forward, put my elbows on his table giving him a good look down the front of my dress.

"Looking for a good time handsome?" I purred, my accent gave him pause and I reached out and rubbed the tip of my finger on the band of the thin ring that he wore on his pinky, He raised his eyebrow suspiciously and gave me a questioning look. I am not that much of an actress and could not hold the hooker persona. Backsliding to my less sensual self, I grinned. "How's tricks Luke?" I whispered conspiratorially, watching the proverbial light bulb flash in his eyes.

"For a brief moment there I thought that they were going to get much better." Luke groaned, rubbing a hand down his face and flicking a glance at my considerable cleavage. I laughed softly.

"I told you I'd look different each time." I murmured, sashaying around the table and sliding myself onto his lap and giving a little giggle. He was extremely awkward and his hands hovered uselessly. I shot him a dark look and with a sigh he wrapped one arm around me and slid one hand up my leg, alarmingly high. His knuckles rested up under the hem of my very short dress.

"Yes, however last time you showed up at my door as a child selling biscuits." He muttered.

"I was a Girl Guide selling cookies actually." I corrected him and he pinched me sharply on my thigh in response. I flinched. "Ow! Bitch." I exclaimed quietly. He laughed. I smiled sweetly and ran my hand through his hair, snaring a large chunk of it in my fist. I gave it a little warning tug. His sucked in a breath and I know I didn't imagine the flare of heat in his eyes. Apparently I'd stumbled on Luke's little kink. Hair pulling. We shared an awkward, sexually charged moment.

"Ah, to be young." a very familiar voice interrupted. I felt my heart rate kick up and knew that the blood was draining from my face. I could only hope that the amount of make-up I had on would hide my suddenly ghostly complexion. Luke appeared alarmed for a moment, glancing at me before turning to face the speaker. Forcing a bright smile and a vapid expression, I too, turned to face the Baron.

"Oh you're not so old sir, I'm sure you could still show a girl a good time." I simpered, my voice dripping sugar. Strucker admired me indulgently, and I could feel Luke regarding me with astonishment.

"You're very kind my dear." He said with a cold smile. I giggled and wriggled, snuggling into Luke's lap. The Baron fixed me with a disdainful look, then addressed Luke, "I suppose you have earned yourself a reward God, but do take yourself somewhere more private. This is unseemly." He waved his hand at me dismissively and then strode away. Luke and I sat silently for a moment. I knew that I was shaky, and Luke seemed subdued. A part of me had been so certain that he would recognize me and snap a collar around my neck.

"Let's go." Luke said quietly pushing me up on my feet. He then stood, towering over me and I noticed several people in the little bar stare at him, measures of respect and resentment in their gaze. He grasped my hand and led me up the stairs at the side of the room. His stride proud and purposeful. I tottered after him, the ridiculous heels that I was wearing making my hips roll and forcing me to take fast little mincing steps. We ascended the staircase, and Luke addressed the guards that stood on the landing.

"I demand complete privacy." He said in a commanding tone, "The Baron has granted me a reward for my loyalty and service, I do not not wished to be disturbed while I..." he turned and fixed me with a predatory gaze, " _enjoy_ it." His voice dropped to something so seductive that I felt an involuntary shiver travel up my spine. The huskiness in my chuckle was not entirely put on. I had no idea that Luke was capable of making me feel like this, and as I trotted after him like an awkward gazelle, I wasn't convinced that I liked it.

He shut the door and locked it while stood in the room thinking about his reaction to me pulling his hair. I didn't want to think about it, but it kept popping into my head. I should be much more concerned with the Baron's activity in a small pub, not with what turned Luke on. Shit.

"Are you well?" He asked suddenly and I swung around so fast that my hair whipped about and flicked me in the face. Swearing and blinking I wiped it away.

"What?" I squawked guiltily, of course I knew Luke couldn't know what I was thinking. "I'm fine. Why do you ask?" I asked distractedly. The room pretty much just had a bed and a bathroom. I tried to think too hard on that and, feeling distinctly flustered, I sat on the corner of the bed, tugging on the hem of my dress.

"Because when you looked as though you might faint when Strucker interrupted us." He said, eyes darting away from me. Yeah, interrupted us having a kind of sexy moment. I wasn't entirely comfortable remembering that either. I could still hear that little intake of breath when I'd held a fist full of his hair in my grip. I coughed.

"Like I said, we've got a history, The Baron and I. Not that he'd recognize me like this of course." I sounded more confident than I felt. The Baron had been good at getting into my head and messing me around, the memories of it were enough to make me increasingly nervous.

"He's beginning to trust me." Luke remarked, leaning up against the wall opposite me and crossing his arms, "I have been raised in his regard so much so that I am always at his side when he is in the area. Much of what he does is uninteresting. Ensuring that all of his bases are properly supplied, receiving reports and such."

"You must be learning quite a bit." I commented, fidgeting with my hair. Luke snorted.

"Not as much as I would care to. He claims to have people of considerable power under his control and gloats that no-one will see him coming. He is planning something big. Very big, but the plans are going to take some time to come to fruition. The waiting is very dull." Luke began pacing. I picked at the cover on the bed.

"What are you doing here?" I asked. Luke sighed, "Waiting. He's supposed to meeting a very important contact but he's remaining evasive when I ask questions."

"I hope you're not missing it because of me." I muttered. Luke shook his head.

"The meeting is to take place at midnight, which is still some time away, and he claimed to have need of me at the time of the meet. I think he's planning a test of my loyalty. His secrecy doesn't make sense when he claims to have need of me." Luke's hands were behind his back and he stated his suspicions very matter of fact. I knew that he'd do whatever it was that the Baron wanted him to.

"You have to pass that test." I said unnecessarily. I was dying to know what the Baron was up to and who could possibly so important that he was willing to meet them in a dirty little pub, but I wouldn't risk Luke's safety. I knew how volatile Strucker could be when things didn't go his way.

"He has been asking me a great deal of questions, regarding my true identity and from where I originate." Luke advised me quietly. I groaned.

"Considering that you can't tell me your actual identity, that's really not a great deal of help." I opened the clutch that I'd brought along with me and pulled out a protein bar. Maintaining these shifts was hungry work.

"I know you're trying to figure out who I am too, and you can find out. You just have to keep looking for the right information." he told me, "Though you may not like what you discover."

"Urgh, don't say ominous things like that Luke. I may not want to find out who you really are. I like liking you, I don't want to hate you." I said through my food. Luke rolled his eyes at my lack of etiquette. I didn't much care, I was posing as a hooker, I didn't think I needed etiquette.

"I don't want you to hate me either. But it is an unavoidable consequence of your future discovery, which is necessary if you're to learn more about what's going on here. It doesn't make a great deal of sense to me, but it may to you. Considering your history with Strucker." He said, and I thought that he sounded a little sad. I swallowed the last of my bar.

"Don't be such a wet blanket. I've loved some pretty questionable people in my time, I'm sure I'll be just as accepting of a friendship with you when I know who you really are as I am now. I promise, I'll keep looking to find out who you are." I stood up and stilled his pacing with a touch on his arm. He paused, regarding me with a piercing glance.

"I certainly hope so. It's vital information that I can't tell you myself." He told me. We both heard heavy footsteps clumping up the stairs. "That's the Baron!" Luke hissed, we shared a panicked stare.

"Quick," I whispered, "sex me!" and then without giving me a chance to object, he grabbed the hem of my dress and whipped it up over my head before shoving me onto the bed. The look on his face as he realized that I was naked under that dress was priceless, and I laughed as he threw himself on top of me. I helped him out of his jacket and took a great deal of glee in tearing his shirt open. The red flush that flooded his face when he realized my mirth at his expense, was the most color I'd ever seen in his face.

"Its not as though I've never seen a naked woman before." He muttered and I giggled more, running my hands over his bare chest. I could feel heat swamping my body and I knew I was enjoying this ruse far more than I should. My breathing hitched and Luke looked at me, I saw what I was feeling reflected in his eyes and when he lowered his head to kiss me I met his mouth with enthusiasm. Those lips were as cool as his body, which I pulled closer. He wrapped his arms around me and groaned into my mouth at the contact of our bare chests. I was expertly reduced to a needy mess under the administrations of his lips and tongue and I clutched at him, wanting more.

The door crashed open, the lock failing completely under the force of the Baron's kick. Strucker charged in, " You, God! We have been compromised and we must leave. Now!" He barked at Luke, who'd turned to stare at Strucker. I flushed shamefaced, having completely forgotten about the Baron, who didn't even spare me a glace. "Leave the whore for Shield." He snarled before turning and marching from the room. Luke looked from the door to me, his eyes round and I wondered if he'd forgotten about the Baron as well.

"I'm sorry I-" He backed himself off me so fast it was like I'd caught fire, "I got carried away." he cast one more look at me and then tossed me my dress. He was still breathing hard and his hair was adorably ruffled. Trying not to feel too cheated, I pulled the dress back on.

"Hey, this body makes people get carried away." I said wiping my mouth on the back of my hand and acting as nonchalant as I could while my heart was still racing, "That's why I shifted to it." I couldn't help the sad smile as I dropped the shift, melting back to my very average self. The dress didn't fit nearly as well on my smaller frame. I refused to look at Luke directly while I strode over to the small window and rammed it open. My natural appearance would act as a bucket of cold water to him.

"I'm sorry that you didn't learn much this trip." He said formally, flushing slightly when I raised an eyebrow in disbelief at him.

"Oh I'm sure I've picked up enough to help me learn something new." I said pertly. "Until next time, God-boy." If he thought that I'd missed The Baron's pet name for him, he was dead wrong. I waggled my fingers at him and shifted to an owl, perching on the window ledge. With a final hoot at Luke's startled expression, I swept out into the night air and carried myself home on silent wings.

A screeching alarm split through the silence of the night, jerking me out of my dreamless sleep. I lurched from my bed and staggered about my room looking for some trousers and trying desperately to recall what Steve had first told me about the different alarms during my orientation half a year ago. Glancing at the clock I figured that I'd had about five hours sleep and I fiercely loathed the world and everything in it.

"Alright I'm up, I'm up!" I yelled my hands over my ears, with nothing springing to mind that might help me figure out what I was supposed to do, I dashed from the room, seeing the other dorm occupants skidding about the corridor in various states of dress. Sam and James were running towards the mission room in nothing but boxer shorts and I hurried to join them, admiring the view of their bare backs and satin clad bottoms. My loathing subsided a little.

Wanda fell into step beside me, a t-shirt and pajama bottoms, as bra-less as I was. She fixed me with a worried look "What's going on?" She shouted over the noise of the alarm, I shook my head, having no clue. Vincent glided past us, along the corridor and just vanished into the wall ahead of us, I pulled a face as we scrambled around the corner.

Well all came to a panicked halt in the assembly area to see Steve standing at the large table in nothing but trackpants. I was willing to bet that they were hastily pulled on and he really slept in the buff. He was examining a video that was being holo-projected above the tables surface. Natasha came into the room from a different direction, looking fresh and ready for action and not all like she'd just been roused from deep morning slumber by a banshee cry. I stood at the table in yesterday's unbuttoned stained jeans with my arms crossed over my braless chest in my thin singlet and tried not to hate her.

"I bet she hasn't even been to bed." Sam whispered in my ear. He was hugging himself and his skin was goose-pimpling. I hummed my agreement.

"Our perimeter has been breached." Steve announced. Ah. So the screeching wail of death sound meant that someone was breaking in, "However, our security cameras haven't picked anything definitive up." He replayed the footage that he'd been watching, you couldn't see anything.

"Wait, there, there's a blur." Natasha pointed. The picture enlarged and repeated. We could all see the slight blur, which could easily be dismissed as technological glitch. Except that Wanda audibly gasped and I watched all the color drain from her face. Steve, ever perceptive, picked up on her reaction.

"Wanda, what do you know?" He demanded. Wanda opened her mouth to respond when a strange man strolled into the room and we were all immediately distracted.

"Ten points for getting into the base undetected, thank you and I thank you." He declared, smiling smugly and taking a little bow. I pulled a face and leaned over to Vincent, "Because apparently genius here didn't hear that ear splitting screech that had us vaulting from our beds. Undetected my ass." I whispered. Vincent smiled and James snorted.

"Clint, what the hell?" Natasha exclaimed, and Clint winked at her. He grinned broadly at everyone around the room and they returned his smile. I recognized him as Hawkeye, but I'd never met him before. I'd gathered that he was the team wise-ass. His gaze landed on me.

"Ah and the rookie too." He said, giving me a little wave before turning away. "Well Tasha, it wasn't just me, it was me and-"

"Pietro." Wanda said breathlessly. Clint nodded with a smug look on his face. He obviously knew more than anyone else in the room and was prepared to lord it over them all. Startled, I turned to look at her, Pietro was supposed to be dead. I felt a whoosh, my hair flapped, and very suddenly, Wanda was gone. I sighed.

"So. Apparently the speedsters not dead." James murmured. I frowned and wondered if Fury knew that yet or not. Probably. There wasn't much that he didn't know. Yawning, I turned my attention back to Clint, who was explaining to Steve how Pietro came to be here.

"-while I was on a mission for Fury. I ran across some unexpected Hydra interference, in the form of Pietro. At some point, Hydra recovered him, he wasn't as dead as we thought. They were controlling him with some kind of collar." Clint was saying, my interest peaked. Luke had mentioned that Strucker had control over some powerful people. I just hadn't realised that he'd meant it literally. I thought Strucker was blackmailing politicians, not collaring enhanced humans. I felt my skin heat slightly as Luke came to mind.

"Collar?" Steve asked, glancing over at me. "With the steel fibers that pierce the skin of the neck and entangle themselves into the spinal column?" I rubbed the back of my neck as Steve spoke, remembering the feeling.

"Yeah, how did you know?" Clint asked, eyebrows raised.

"A couple of us are all too familiar with Hydra's methods." Steve replied evasively. I appreciated it, I wasn't really ready for everyone to know that I'd spent time as Baron Von Strucker's pet.

"So what happened to his collar?" I asked, those collars were specially designed to be tamper proof. It took a lot to remove them.

"I shot it off him." Clint said, shrugging. I stood opened mouthed.

"You're shitting me right?" I clarified, Steve groaned and shook his head, Clint laughed.

"You gonna let her get away with that kind of language Cap?" He asked and the Captain just shook his head in a resigned kind of way.

"Honestly there's nothing that I can say or do that stops her." he responded, eyeing me darkly. I just smiled sweetly. It was the modern age. People swear. And since I knew that cussing made Steve uncomfortable, I had made it my life's purpose to come up with the most inventive expletives to use during combat training. He'd landed a punch to my face last time and I'd called him a knuckle dragging, inbred swamp donkey. Clint was grinning.

"I shit you not. I did shoot off him. We had to time it exactly right, him coming out of signal range and me getting the angle of the shot just so." I had a feeling that Clint was actually dying to launch into full story telling mode.

"Uh guys," James said and I jumped, having completely forgotten that he was there, He pointed to the gray light illuminating the windows, "That is the cold light of dawn lighting the sky out there." There was a collective noise of groans.

"Well. I'll put the coffee pot on." Sam grumbled and we all shuffled off in our various directions to properly begin our day.


	9. Unpleasant Discoveries

I sat at the large table, head resting heavily on my hand, my face squishing up and my eyelids barely open. I was usually very fatigued after a visit with Luke. Flying out to his location and maintaining my disguise proving to be a massive drain on my energy reserves. In fact, if it hadn't been for my rigorous training with Steve every day, there was no way I'd be capable of it. The first time I'd ventured out, I'd spent the rest of the next day barely conscious. Poor Steve had fretted and blamed himself for putting me under so much pressure. Personally I was happy to let him take the blame, I hated spending hours in the gym and combat training. So, between my late return, the vivid dreams that wavered between sexy and horrifying, and the very early morning, I was beyond wrecked.

"This is everything current that we have on the Baron and his movements." Steve said, examining the projected tabs, "And this is everything that Peitro learned while he was with him." He gestured grandly and a few more tabs lit up. I looked at the small amount of data with disdain. Our suddenly undead buddy was circling the table like some sort of silver-haired shark, eyeing the information with a determined look. His sister Wanda didn't take her eyes off him once. Like she couldn't believe it was real.

"We don't got jack." James said frustrated. I grunted my agreement and sighed. I thought having Luke on the inside would give me an edge, but I didn't know much more than the rest of the team about his recent movements. I knew The Baron. His habits, his ego, his tendencies. Time as one of his favored pets had at least given me that. I glanced at Pietro's information. It was so sparse that I knew, without even having to ask, that Pietro hadn't been a very co-operative pet. The Baron, he liked to talk. To gloat. But only if he felt that you deserved his conversation, otherwise you were either ignored or punished.

" _Oh. my dear," he said sorrowfully, steering me towards the cold rooms with a painful grip on my arm, "You're usually so well behaved." He held the controller to my collar in his other hand, thumb hovering over the buttons ominously. My heart rate spiked. I knew where we were going. What my punishment would be. We reached a door at the end of the hall and The Baron paused. He turned to look at me, a seeming sadness in his gaze. The half dose of sedative that I'd been given made me unable to focus and drowsy. I wouldn't be able to shift or project my way out of trouble._

" _You know I can't let that type of behavior slide." He pulled his glove off and ran a finger down my jawline, marveling at the changes in my skin as my Kree boosted immune system fought off the Death Spore Virus efficiently. My breathing hitched and I sluggishly jerked my face away. Strucker frowned. "I cannot be seen to tolerate insubordination from my pets." He said, unlocking the door, I tried to back away, feeling panicked but he pushed a button on the remote and I seized. He grabbed me harshly by the arm, his fingers digging into my flesh, and then he threw me into the room._

 _I hit the floor hardand the man who had been pacing the room turned to stare at me. His stance was wary, that of a caged animal and he watched me with the eyes of a predator who had just found his_ _prey. I scrambled back, pushing myself against the closed door, filling with despair when I heard it lock._

" _It's almost poetically balanced, now you will be punished by being the favor for another of my pets." The Baron spoke through the door. "You know how it is my Changling, he comes out of his long freeze with a man's hunger." I heard his retreating footsteps and knew that there was no hope left for me to get out of this. I glanced up at the man, a scream rising in my throat. His hair hung in ragged clumps around his head and he prowled toward me with intent. I hoped to see some humanity in his gaze, but there was none. He was too fresh. Then all I felt was the cold of his steel arm as he pushed it up against my throat._

The fear smashed through my body like a tidal wave, it flooded all coherent thought from my mind and I acted purely on instinct. I flew from my seat up onto the table, tingling as my flesh changed to Vibranium. I was surrounded. My hand on my chain I viciously kicked the person closest to me in the face as they tried to climb atop the table. The chain morphed into a slender rod and I swung it in an arc, smashing a foe across the cheek and then thrusting it blindly behind me, someone grunting as it hit them in the stomach. I was was nearly overwhelmed with my desire to get away.

I could hear them, shouting orders at each other, trying to take me down, but I couldn't understand the words. Terrified, I opened my mouth and vibrated my metal vocal chords, creating a supersonic screech that rippled outward, battering their eardrums. I leaped from the table and bounced off the back of one of my adversaries, who was crouching, hands over ears. I hit the floor running, bolting for the nearest door. Feeling a rush of air, I threw out my rod twirling with the impact of someone running into it at high speed. They dropped, un-moving to the floor.

I heard more shouting, swinging around I prepared to defend myself. There were two, but they didn't charge me. They simply stood, hands out, feet apart. One was talking to me, he made no sense, but his behavior wasn't threatening. Uncertain I stepped back, ready to run. Then a woman stepped into my view. At first I was startled by her tear stained face, and then in a haze of red, I fell to the floor, dropping my shift as I went down. My thoughts returned to the present, and I realized that I'd been living in my memory at the sufferance of my team mates.

"Shit." I whispered, breathing hard. My mind cleared very quickly, but my body still recalled the sickening feeling from the dream and the fear for my life. Wanda helped me stumble up, everyone else still keeping their distance. My rod fell limp and I wound the chain about my neck, then, gagging, I bolted for the wastepaper basket.

"Is she...?" I heard James half ask while I threw up noisily. Wanda nodded as I righted myself and leaned against the wall. Everyone was looking at me.

"What the hell happened?" Steve demanded. Blood stained the front of his t-shirt and his nose was sitting irregular on his handsome face. Since I didn't know how to answer his question, I ignored it. Doing a damage assessment, I saw that Steve had a broken nose, Natasha had a huge welt across her cheek, Clint was sitting with his hand on his stomach and Pietro was unconscious on the floor, apparently unnoticed. Wanda approached me a haunted look in her eyes. Make-up smeared all over her face.

"I saw." She said, looking at me, "I remembered with you." She stalked around me, horror on her face. "You were so afraid." she whispered and I felt guilty for taking her with me into that memory.

"I'm sorry." I whispered to her. I glanced around the room and cleared my throat. "I'm sorry."I said louder, addressing the room. "I-I didn't mean to..." I trailed off lamely, starting when Clint let out a laugh.

"-Didn't mean to snap kick Steve in the face, flog Tasha, knock out Pietro and give me internal injuries. Yeah, we've gathered that." He said with half a smile. "The fact that you could is kind of incredible, Just don't make it a habit."

"I really don't plan on it." I muttered. There was a low groan and we all looked over to where Pietro was stirring. He looked about groggily and Clint fixed him with a huge grin.

"What, you didn't see that coming?" He asked the groggy Speedster, who gave a painful sounding laugh and muttered something in Sokovian, which I'm pretty sure was _fuck off_. I slowly approached the table. I cleared my throat again.

"Well," I said, biting my lip, "If you'd all like to form an orderly queue, I can heal your injuries. The least I can do, seeing as I inflicted them."

Clint demanded to go first, claiming to have internal bleeding. He didn't, but I had hit him very hard in the gut with my rod. I reset Steve's nose and took away Pietro's concussion. Natasha approached me with a wry smile.

"Make me pretty again." She said, I laughed and laid my hands on her. I went over her with my soul, and while I repaired her face, I came across scar tissue deep within her. It was old. It was very old, and it it was too clean to have been an accident. Not sure what to, I didn't say anything. I'd talk with her about later when we were alone.

"So, we all just gonna forget that you went bat shit crazy and beat the crap out of nearly all of us or what?" James asked suddenly and I turned to look at him. He and Sam were standing on the other side of the table with incredulous expressions.

"You wouldn't blame her if you knew." Wanda defended me. I felt myself go red. I didn't really want to explain myself but I kind of owed it to them. As it was, only Fury, Natasha, Steve and Tony knew about my past with Hydra. But now Wanda did too, and I'm sure it was just a matter of time before she told Pietro. I didn't expect that the twins kept many secrets from each other. Taking an deep breath, I picked up a chair from the floor and sat down.

"I have, a history with Baron Von Strucker." I said, looking around the room, my eyes lingering lastly on Pietro, "I was his pet for fifteen years. All of this Hydra activity, the Baron, even my training. It's all bringing back memories. Memories that I have, up until now, managed to keep suppressed for a _very_ long time. So, naturally, the nightmares have started. And these kind of nightmares... Well they're hard to wake up from." Pietro's jaw clenched and I knew that he would be having nightmares of his own.

"I was collared, just as Pietro was. However, the collar only served to control me a part of the time. Strucker had other methods to ensure total control. Mental manipulation, sedation, abuse and total brainwashing. Some of us didn't even wear a collar."

"Us?" Sam asked pointedly and I gave a wry smile.

"The Baron always has many pets. Not all of them unwilling. Not all of them collared. And they are never all together in the same place. He's too smart for that. On the particular base that I was contained, there was only one other there full time like me. He was heavily brainwashed, and for a large portion of the time, he was as much my enemy as Strucker was." Steve was staring at me so intensely I felt as though he were boring holes with his gaze into my head, but he said nothing. I fidgeted a bit and took a deep breath.

"Sometimes, when he wasn't the Baron's creation, he was my only friend. I think that the Baron allowed this largely because it provided another _mind fuck_ for him to use on us." I spat out the words, a flash of rage fueling my words. I hated Strucker so much for that.

"I see him." Wanda said, a far away look in her eyes as she looked at me. She turned to Steve with sad little smile. "The Winter Soldier." My stomach clenched at the implication.

"Captain?" I asked alertly, but instead of responding, Steve stood so quickly that his chair clattered to the floor. He strode from the room stone faced, without so much as a glance towards me. Natasha threw a puzzled look at Wanda and I, then hurried to follow him, taking Sam with her. I had had no idea that Steve knew who The Winter Soldier was.

"Well, I guess this little meeting's dismissed." James remarked and Clint grunted his agreement. I sat, shocked at the Captains reaction.

"So um, my bad on the smack-down guys." I said absently, staring at the door Steve had gone out.

"Ah don't worry, you're forgiven. I was the lackey to an evil god and nearly took down the helicarrier, Tony created an evil robot and the wonder twins here actually worked for that robot. No-one's perfect." Clint told me, and I actually felt better, "Of course, it helps that you can heal us after you've thrashed us. I'd be way less agreeable if I still had that sore gut going on." He stood up and strolled out, James followed and Vincent left directly through the wall. Pietro was standing with his hands on Wanda's shoulders. She still looked as though she were far away.

"Wanda, I'm so sorry." I said. She gave me a weak smile. "Not your fault." she said quietly, before Pietro picked her up. He shot me a haunted look and then raced away with her, leaving me in the assembly area alone. I leaned back in my chair and sighed. I didn't know what to do about Steve, I suspected Wanda would avoid me for a while yet, and we hadn't come up with anything to take up against Hydra. Fidgeting, I found myself actually wishing that Nick Fury were here. My little flurry on the table had canceled the projection, so I called it back up. I spent a while reviewing it, then called on older information.

I began comparing the new data with the old and found there to be a familiar pattern. Luke had said that Strucker was planning something big and as I read the names of the locations he'd been, I began to get a creepy deja vu feeling. I read through the list Pietro had provided in his report, of all of the supplies he could recall the Baron obtaining. I sat heavily, and stared at the information. There wasn't enough for me to be certain of what he was doing, but there were too many coincidences for me not to speculate. I arranged for print outs of the relevant information so that I could review them later, and then I shut down the projection. I left the room, wondering whether or not I should share my suspicions.

I woke up sweaty and angry, my throat sore and heart racing. I crawled out of the bed, disgusted at the time. I knew that a sensible person would see that it was three in the morning and try to go back to sleep. But, my nightmares kept me from my bed.

I left my dorm and wandered the halls, finding myself in down in the training wing. The lights in the gym were on, and I quietly slunk to the door and peered inside. Steve had hung a boxing bag and was pummeling it. He had a look on his face that I could only describe as grief. I turned to leave but he knew I was there.

"Trouble sleeping?" He asked conversationally, as though he wasn't violently beating up a bag of sand. I meandered into the room and sat on the treadmill. "Yeah." I answered, slightly hoarse. I guessed that I'd been screaming out in my sleep.

Steve stopped punching and looked at me, "What? No smart ass comments? Clever quips? Not even a disgustingly descriptive insult?" He began unwrapping his hands and I laid back, hands behind my head.

"Nah." I squinted, the fluorescent lights glaring down at me. Steve appeared above me, looking down.

"Nightmares." He stated.

"Yeah." I didn't look him in the eye. I'd rifled through Steve's personal database, looking to learn how he knew the Winter Soldier. I'd learned, and I'd never felt so sorry. I found it amazing that Hydra had given us more in common than we could have ever guessed. It scared me that two such different people, with such different lives could be so badly impacted by Hydra. Even if you weren't a direct target of their chaos, you would still get snared it its wake.

"You ok?" He squatted down to my level and I pushed myself up on my elbows.

"No." I said honestly, and it came spilling out. "I came to New York, looking to take a piece of Hydra, to pay them back for the shit that they did to me, and what they do to everyone else. Only now that I'm here, and it's actually happening, it's harder than it's ever been to cope with..." My voice cracked and I ground my teeth, jerking my face away. I would sooner die than let anyone see me cry. "The shit that they did. I remember it all. But when I was hiding, pretending to be normal, it was easier to shut away. Now memories from over seventy years ago are being played back to me every time I close my eyes and there's nothing that I can do to stop them!" My voiced raised with my frustration, but Steve appeared unfazed.

"Use it." He said and I sat up and stared at him. Honestly, I'd expected a touch more sympathy.

"What?"

"Use your memories against him. Learn from them. Fifteen years is a long time to be a pet," here I raised my eyebrows because compared to over a century, fifteen years is nothing. Steve rolled his eyes at me and continued, "You know, generally speaking. You had all that time with the Baron, watching him, learning about him. You may not realise it, but you probably know him better than anyone else here."

"Huh." I'd never thought about it like that. "It never occurred to me to use my nightmares against him." I took a deep breath and shot Steve a wary look.

"You know who would know him even better than me?" I said quietly, Steve's face dropped. He knew alright. I broached the subject cautiously. "You should find James."

"Me? What about you? Don't you want to find him?" He asked me, adopting a quizzical expression when I sighed. 

"I want to, for sure. But this is the longest he's been out of the freeze. He's been Cann- sorry, Bucky for the longest time since Hydra changed him now, and he'll be replaying everything that he's ever done at Hydra's demand. He'll be ashamed. He'll feel like a monster. I think that if he sees me, he'll remember what he did when he was The Soldier. He'll be certain that he _is_ a monster. He won't heal around me Steve. But he might have a chance around you." I spoke quietly, with a few unwilling tears slipping down my face. I scrubbed them away before Steve could see, he was staring at the floor. Lost in his own memories.

I knew that he was wondering if he really wanted to know what I'd been through at the hands of his friend. I'd already decided that I wasn't going to tell him anything of what the Winter Soldier was like when he'd been at his worst. He loved his friend, and didn't need to hear about the monster that he'd been sometimes. I was going to tell him what he was like when he was my friend.

"Sometimes, when he was just himself," I said and Steve finally looked at me gaze sharpening. "I used to call him Cannon, and he would tell me to call him Bucky. That Cannon was a terrible nickname. We would argue about which was better, in the end I used to say it just to annoy him." I watched Steve. He had a hungry expression, wanting to know more, so I continued. "It was hard for him. He never got to be himself for very long. He'd be taken away, brainwashed and put in the deep freeze. When he came out, he was the Winter Soldier again. He tried to pretend once. To be the Soldier when it was wearing off, just so he could stay out of the freeze for longer. But he couldn't do it. He was a good man, a kind man. And the real James, wasn't capable of the things that the Winter Soldier did. It tore him apart just to try." Steve's jaw was clenched. His face tight.

"He shouldn't be out there alone. He needs you and you can't just give up on him." I said seriously, and Steve glared at me.

"I would _never_." His voice was hard, and I thought I'd stepped over a line, but after a moment, his expression softened. "And you have got to stop getting into personal files." He admonished me, I gave a weak laugh.

"If you really meant that, Stark would have installed Friday into the systems by now."

"I'm not in the habit of asking Stark for favors." Steve said, and then with a sideways look and a smile he added, "Tony tends to get a bit condescending when I ask him for help with anything modern. So I don't ask." I returned his smile. I thought that Steve did ok with modern technology considering that he totally missed the development of a great deal of it. Just got thawed one day and BAM! Plasma televisions and the internet without any warning whatsoever.

I glad that the Captain and I had had a chance to share a moment. confiding secrets in each other that we wouldn't tell anyone else. Bonding. It felt nice having someone to talk to about my problems, as oppose to just pretending that I had none. All at once, rain began hammering down. The sound of it on the roof nearly deafening.

"That's a bit unexpected." I murmured, surprised. A low rumble of thunder rolling through the darkness outside. The windows illuminating with the flashes of lightening. Steve sighed.

"That'll be Thor." He said wearily, pinching the bridge of his nose. I bounced, excited.

"Cool, I'll get to meet a god!" I said enthusiastically. a little piece of my brain remembering that I was supposed to be learning more about my own God-boy. I pushed the thought back, promising myself that I'd look into it later. We went to the front doors, and poked our heads out into the rain to see the golden haired god crouched in a pose on a round block of concrete seemingly randomly placed in the lawn.

"Thor!" Steve called, and Thor looked up with a grin on his face. He stood and strode purposefully towards us. He seemed to radiate life and warmth. The rain didn't touch him as he walked, his cape and hair swaying gently with his momentum. I openly gaped. I knew that he was a god, but he was _ridiculously_ otherworldly and good looking.

"Captain! Old friend!" He yelled, even though he was right in front of us. He threw an arm around Steve's shoulders and Steve smiled uncomfortably.

"Thor, what brings you here at this hour of the morning?" I admired the Captain's ability to get straight to the point. Thor's face turned serious, but it wasn't any less attractive.

"I come with dire news. Artifacts have been stolen from the vaults of Asgard my friend. Dangerous artifacts. The Tesseract among them." Steve stopped suddenly.

"How?" He demanded and Thor sighed, running a hand through his golden hair and ruffling it with that very human gesture.

"We are as yet unsure, Hiemdall has looked through all nine realms and can see naught." He said, and I mentally paused. Nine realms? I'd heard that before. Luke had said it. I felt sick, an unwanted certainty washing through me. Mr God-boy and his Nine Realms. He couldn't possibly be... could he?

"I thought your brother was the only one who could hide himself from Hiemdall." Steve said. Thor nodded gravely and I paled.

"As did we. But Loki is dead. The Orb of Agamotto was also taken, We assume this is the reason for the Hiemdall's blindness." I saw grief on his face when he mentioned his brother, but I didn't feel relieved. Loki had been thought dead before and then showed up here with an alien army in tow. And Luke was a name that was dangerously close to Loki. Luke fucken Frost, or Loki the freaking Frost Giant. Jesus.

"Steve, your companion, is she well? She seems quite pale." Oh god, they even talked the same. Steve put his hand on my arm.

"Brooke?" He asked gently. I looked at him, and I must looked mighty bad because he became the picture of concern. I didn't respond, my brain was working furiously, adding up all of the little pieces. The more I thought about it, the more certain I became that Luke was actually Loki.

I couldn't believe it. I was an ally to the god who once had decided to take over the world. The King Schemer. The Prince of Lies! Mr. Deception himself. No wonder he'd been such a good kisser, he'd had literally centuries and centuries of practice. He was working with Hydra! I'd been keeping him hidden from the Avengers! What had I done? I'd made out with the trickster and enjoyed it, is what! But what was I going to do now?

"Brooke!" Steve yelled, grabbing me by the arm. I yelped and looked at him, "I have- I have to go." I mumbled, pulling out of his grip and heading for my dorm. I really needed to have a good hard think about what I was supposed to do now.


	10. The Dream

I threw myself down on my bed, so consumed by my thoughts that for once I didn't even feel guilty about the mess in my dorm room. I was utterly, utterly torn at my discovery. Part of me was convinced that I was an idiot for not putting it together sooner. That formal speech, devious mind, otherworldly aura. How could I have been so stupid. But I also remembered reading the sincerity in his soul. I remembered him telling me that I would hate him when I discovered who he was. His insinuation that if I wanted to fully understand Hydra's plans, I'd _need_ to discover who he was. He'd known. That bastard. He'd known that it would come to this.

I tugged on the chain around my neck and gave a loud disgusted snort at myself when I realized that I'd given the God of Mischief a piece of my soul. Jesus, I was older than anyone else here, excepting Thor. How could I have been so willfully blind. I thought about when I'd seen him last and the memory got me hot and bothered. I tried to convince myself that he'd made me do it. That he'd made me feel that way with his God Mojo, but truthfully, I knew that it was all me. Then something dawned on me.

"Son of a _bitch!_ " I blurted. Loki didn't have his power! He'd done no illusions, no sorcery. He'd had the crap beaten out of him by a bunch of thugs in an ally, he _couldn't_ have power. I scrambled up, and after a brief search that left my space twice as trashed, I found the dossier that Nick had given me on all of the Avengers when I'd left Shield headquarters.

I plopped down on the bed, and while my foot bounced restlessly, I reviewed the information within. The pages on Thor revealed that when he had first landed in New Mexico, He'd stripped of his powers by his father. Odin, as punishment for Thor's behavior toward the Jotenhiem had taken Thor's power and banished him to Earth. I pulled a face. Bit harsh, I thought. But then, I wasn't anybody's father. I wondered if Odin had stripped his other son of his power as punishment for trying to take over the world.

When Loki had attempted to invade earth, he had done so with an army gifted to him by a mysterious somebody. That somebody who had also given him the Mind Stone, hidden in a scepter, which Loki had used to control both Clint and Selvig, among others. Who and where he'd obtained this power from was unknown, Loki had been given up for dead, since he apparently fell to his death from the Bifrost Bridge. So him appearing out of nowhere 'burdened with glorious purpose' was a shock to everyone.

Unsatisfied with the amount of hard information, I grunted and launched my soul from my body. I projected myself into the systems and reviewed the more comprehensive data found within. I located and memorized every single byte of information. Witness reports, and reports from the avengers themselves. Old news footage, videos that had been taken by bystanders on their phone. I saw photos, film, pages and pages of written reports regarding the invasion and Loki's master plan. When I withdrew and synced back into myself. While I almost certainly knew far more than I had, I was left even more confused. A lot of things were not adding up.

I found it very hard to believe that a God who'd had rule over Asgard truly wanted to rule earth. Seemed like a major drop of the bar to me, and I didn't think that Loki was the type to ever lower his standards and settle. But after being busted by his brother trying to commit genocide, he'd fallen into an abyss and then popped up on earth, quite some time later, with a sallow face, greasy hair and a bunch of stray aliens in tow. Did nobody ever wonder what in the bloody hell had happened to him during the time that he'd been floating through time and space? Or who on earth might have wanted the Tesseract so badly that they were willing to give an army to a space mad god of lies who'd just tried to blow up the entirety of his own race? Nobody even noticed that he was willing to backslide from a throne on Asgard to one on Earth. I was beginning to feel like the Avengers were very 'punch first, questions later' types, which was a real shame because there was just so much going on there that should have been addressed.

Loki had proven to be devious beyond understanding. But there were a few things that were just _off_ about the whole scenario. I ground my teeth. I did not like being unsure. I didn't like not knowing what to do. He'd told me he was the bad guy, and history certainly backs that statement up. But he'd gone into Hydra for me when he'd barely known me. He hadn't been lying when he said that he wanted redemption. I swore loudly and threw the file. Papers exploded into the room and floated downwards, settling and adding an extra element of chaos to my room.

I dramatically threw myself backwards on my bed again, feeling lost. Soon, despite the turmoil of my mind and emotions, my lack of sleep caught up with me. I slept the open-mouthed, drooling sleep of the dead-tired.

 _The land stretched out before me. My eyes adjusted to the inky blackness of the night. The landscape was familiar. The smells. The sounds. I turned, searching, wanting to hear her, hold her, to see her. She wasn't there. She wasn't ever there. I was alone. I knew this dream. I had it often. Shira was never there. No matter how much I searched, or called her name or begged and sobbed for her, I remained alone. As I deserved. A change rippled across the landscape. A change that I could not define._

I stood. And indescribable clarity coming to me. I had always known, in some small way, that I was dreaming, but in an instant, it changed. Now I knew it completely and resolutely. I was lucid and aware, instead of helplessly lost inside the warped memory.

"Well, color me... intrigued." A cool and frustratingly familiar voice commented and Luke- no wait, - _Loki_ , strolled into my line of sight, looking avidly at his surroundings. I frowned, This was not the status quo. It wasn't supposed to go like this.

"Where's Shira?" I asked him. Since this dream was obviously different this time, maybe she would finally appear to me. I looked for her, and when I didn't see her, my gaze returned to Loki who had his eyebrows raised and was looking politely puzzled.

"Just us I'm afraid." He said and I blinked at him. He looked so clear and real that I felt as though if I reached out to touch him, I would actually feel him under my palms and not just in my head. I became wary. This new clarity whilst I slept, this unnatural consciousness, had to be his doing.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded. I was not feeling too happy with him at the moment. I'd only just figured out who he was, and I was not at all sure that I wanted anything to do with him. Somehow he'd infiltrated my dream. I just knew that the Loki standing before me was not of my creation.

"Perhaps I did not wish to wait until you sought me out again. There is far too much time between your little visits and they are getting _so_ interesting." He murmured, a suggestive gleam in his eye. Despite myself, I thought about what had happened when we last saw each other. To my horror, my dream-scape changed. The world slipping away like sand running down the dune, and Loki and I fell with it. We landed in that little shabby room above the bar. I was naked on the bed, and Loki was on top of me, shirt open and chest bared. An exact reenactment of the memory. My hands were touching his bare skin again and I froze, his face just centimeters from mine. He broke into a grin.

"While I confess, this _has_ been on my mind, it's not quite what I meant." he purred, and dropped a lingering kiss on my lips before the scenery changed again. Now we were sitting, very appropriately, at the little table in that old hotel room, where he'd been staying when I'd had to heal him. It was even littered with the band-aids and antiseptic supplies he'd been attempting to use at the time. Our clothes matched the memory, for which I was extremely grateful. I flicked my gaze about and noted that the the view from the window was the original landscape I'd been dreaming about before this intrusion. Loki was watching me with an amused smirk.

"I wanted to see you because Strucker has a new ally, and I cannot stress enough how dangerous she is. She is, how do you put it, ah, _a game changer._ " He looked at me very seriously for a moment, reaching out and touching my hand. At the brush of his fingers, a part of my brain noted that I finally had the reason for why he always seemed so cold. I withdrew my hand and looked at him reproachfully. How could he be walking in my dreams when he had no power?

"Thor arrived today." I said, ignoring his words. He tensed and looked at me sharply, but said nothing. "The way he speaks, the way he phrases things. Reminded me of you." I saw a sadness touch his features, but then it was gone. Now his was a face that I hadn't seen before. I feared that I wouldn't see my friend Luke again. The man sitting before me, was Loki.

"I've always considered you to be a clever mortal." He said coolly, "I don't expect that it took long for you to put the pieces together." I tried to search his soul, but found that I couldn't in my dream, which was disconcerting.

"I knew from his third sentence." I tried not to come across as smug. "What's the Orb of Agamotto?" I asked and gave a bitter laugh.

"It's an artifact that hides the use of magic." He spat, "One of the items stolen from Odin's Trophy Vault, along with the Elixirs of Renewal, and the Tesseract. I believe that there may be more but the information is being kept from me." He looked extremely put out. "I do not think that the Baron will ever fully trust me. Apparently my reputation as the trickster god is to blame." He finished with a grim smile.

"So you don't look too happy, and yet you're here with your powers back. What's with that?" I earned a beaming look from the God.

"So clever." He said, with a touch of pride, which rankled because it wasn't like I was his puppy who'd just learned a new trick. His face twisted into an expression of distaste as he continued, "Amora, the fool, stole these things. The Baron wanted my powers restored, believing them to be useful, so she arranged for the necessary items to be _acquired._ The Elixirs to renew my sorcery, and the Orb to hide its use. She failed to realize that the moment I try to hide myself from Heimdall, my father will rain fire until he has me in his custody again. I am under very specific orders."

"Which are?" I asked, holding out my hand, waiting for the obvious, "and I'm guessing Amora is the game changer?" He made an impatient gesture.

"My reasons for being on Midgard have very little to do with the Baron's plans," He replied evasively, clearly reluctant to tell me the truth. I narrowed my eyes.

"Loki!" I said sharply, and he glanced up at my first use of his real name, "Tell me. I deserve to know." He knew I did too. I could see it in his eyes. He sighed.

"Odin stripped me of my powers and banished me to Midgard. If Thor finds out about my existence, I will be hunted down and executed. If Heimdall loses sight of me, I will be hunted down and executed. If I try anything that might even resemble world domination, I will be hunted down and executed with all of the might of Asgard." He recited in a monotone. I frowned.

"Ok, ok, so I'm assuming that Heimdall doesn't know you've got your power back. How's that work? Also you're working for Hydra, how are your old man and Heimdall ok with that?" I pointed out. Loki shrugged.

"Hydra wants global chaos. You can't _rule_ chaos. And Amora is using the Orb to hide herself, So Heimdall could not see her restore my powers. As long as I don't use them, Heimdall will know nothing." He said, sounding bored. I suspected that he was moderating his behavior to seem nonchalant. But I couldn't blame him. Maybe Luke would have admitted to being a bit upset at his predicament, but not Loki.

"Ok, point. So how are you doing magic now without Heimdall seeing it?" I circled my finger, meaning the controlled dreaming that Loki had created. Certainly I never had as much control on my own. He grinned.

"We are merely dreaming, and dream-walking is more soul work than sorcery. The amount of magic needed for it is almost inconsequential." His eyes turned hard for a moment.

"It must suck, having your power back and being unable to really use it." I mentioned, earning that bitter laugh.

"You would notice that." His face grew harder and colder. My discovery of his identity had changed his demeanor. I couldn't decided which projected persona was the act. Loki, or Luke? I wanted to feel bad for him, but knew that he would find that unacceptable. Instead, I ensured that my guard was still up and changed the subject.

"So, onto Amora. Some details would be nice." I said, inspecting my nails as though there were nothing out of the ordinary. This was just an average conversation with the God of Mischief inside a memory that's happening inside my dream. Nothing suss here. Loki got up and began to pace again. I hid a smile. He might change the way he regarded me, but his habits remained.

"She's also known as The Enchantress. She has protector, Skurge, though he is usually known as The Executioner. The Baron managed to obtain her help. I know not what he has promised her. I know Amora, and she wouldn't do anything out of the kindness of her heart. She specializes in sorcery as I do, but where I am mischievous with my magic, she is downright dangerous." He told me. I frowned.

"Yeah, invading with an army of aliens is just _mischievous._ " I said with my eyebrows up. Loki looked at me, darkness in his eyes.

"You know not of what you speak!" He spat, "Do not presume that you know my motivations." His voice was cold and I eyed him resentfully. I decided that I liked him better when he was Luke.

"So enlighten me." I said, steel in my tone. If he wanted to drop our generally friendly attitude, then I could do that. He sighed.

"Now is not the time, and I fear you would just assume that the God of Lies is, of course, lying to save his own reputation." He murmured, surprising me with the hopelessness in his face. I immediately softened.

"You might be surprised on what I'm willing to believe." I had more than a few suspicions of my own regarding his invasion and intended to pump him for details to help me confirm them. But he was right. Now wasn't the time, "So The Baron has made new friends, how am I supposed to get the rest of the Team to learn this without giving you away?"

Loki scowled. "I don't care how you get your _team_ to find out." He snarled and I rolled my eyes.

"Don't be a prick. I need them if I'm going to destroy Hydra, I can't do it by myself. I get that you hate them, I even get why. Sort of. But dude, they're my friends so ease up on the open loathing yeah?" I said, fidgeting with the band-aids on the table. Loki elected to ignore my words entirely.

"How is it that you dream about Hala?" He asked, completely off topic, referring to my dream-scape, which was of the Kree home world. I tilted my head. I hadn't thought that Asgardians might know of the Kree. Certainly it made sense for them to since they knew of Earth and other realms. I wondered if, once I was done with Hydra, maybe I could get to the Kree after all. Definitely something that I was going to have to give a considerable amount of thought to.

"That's where I spent most of my life." I said, "I was one of their human pet experiments. How do you think it is that I can do what I do?" I raised my eyebrows at him and he shrugged, gaze sliding away from me.

"I did not give it much thought." He looked out the window, disinterested in my response.

"Well, now you know." I muttered. What I wouldn't give to have a radioactive spider bite as my origin story instead.

"Who is Shira?" He asked quietly, and I tensed.

"Nobody." I said vaguely, "She's nobody now." My dream began to shiver and I stood, alarmed. Loki turned from the window, glancing around. "I must go. Something is happening on the other end of our dream." His eyes slid over me and I saw a twinkle in them that I did not trust, "As always, it has been _interesting_." He was suddenly standing in front of me and I let out an alarmed squeak just as his lips descended on mine, and while I didn't mean to enjoy it, I absolutely did. He pulled his face away from me.

"Dream of me." He said silkily, as everything faded away. I was left where I started. On the dark, remote plains of Hala, my fingertips on my lips and outrage in my heart. I felt the fury bubbling under the surface. So he thought he could just go flirting with me and I'd be totally cool with it? Not a chance!

"Goddammit, there'll be none of that you cheeky bastard!" I yelled at the vast nothingness. A delighted laugh echoed about the land and then faded into silence.

"Shira! Run!" I screamed, as the blue skinned Kree warrior advanced on us. He was part of a group that were approaching steadily in a semi-circle formation, coming around to flank us. I knew that there would be another group of warriors approaching similarly from behind, attempting to trap us. Shira stubbornly planted herself behind me, facing the rear group.

"I won't leave you!" She declared and I felt my heart constrict. I didn't want her to leave me, not truly. But she was so much more fragile than I. No matter what the Kree did to me, I survived. Shira, despite being a magnificent warrior, did not have the abilities that I had.

"You must! I am their prize, they will not pursue you." I pleaded with her but she shot me down in a single glare flicked over her shoulder. I tried to remember all the tactics we'd used in the arena. We'd fought this number of foes before, but not alone, and not trained Kree warriors. I tried not to feel as though we were doomed, but I could not help the doubt that filled me.

They attacked us then and we had to simply fight. So quickly our lives were once again hanging in the balance. A flash of weapons, blood, screams, crunches. The sounds of annihilation. I glimpsed Shira, her ebony skin gleaming with sweat. I sank my clawed hand into a vulnerable side and tore it back out. The soldier falling to the ground clutching at his bleeding body. As soon as he was down I aimed a powerful kick at his face. His head snapped back and he fell limp. We were tiring quickly and I found myself at Shira's side. She was cut up and bleeding profusely, My own body shook slightly as I healed the worst damage that I had sustained. I felt the drain acutely. Shira held her side as she crouched readily for the next approach. The remaining Kree had completely surrounded us, and were staying just out of our reach. I lay my hand on Shira, healing her wounds. They knew that they had us, and so did I.

"No! You must not waste your energy!" She exclaimed, shoving me away. I fell into the dirt and looked helplessly at her. The Kree made no move. My insides churned and despair overcame me.

"We are defeated." I said to her. Hopeless. She snarled at me, beautiful in her savagery.

"I will die before being their toy again!" She fell to her knees and a sob escaped her. Her spear hit the earth. The Kree advanced on us. They contained us and took us back to the arena for punishment.

I watched Shira walk ahead of me. I'd done this for her. For the only person I'd loved. For the person who taught me about humanity. Taught me what it meant to be a person and not a thing. She inspired me with her stories of a land where she was loved and revered. She taught me to feel, to want and to dream of more than what was. I wanted to be better for her. To give her better. We'd had a taste of freedom, but I wasn't sure if I believed that it was going to be worth it. Our punishment would be harsh. It was always harsh. Shira would be terminated. Runaway's were not tolerated. But I couldn't die. I didn't know what they would concoct to discipline me with. It would not matter. Shira's death would surpass anything that they could come up with.

The Supreme Intelligence did not ponder for long. My usefulness on Hala had reached its end and since I could not die, they had to find another use for me. I was to be sent to one of their observatories on Earth, and used in their continuing studies on human societies. To ensure my cooperation, they used Shira as a disciplinary tool. Any indiscretion from me, and Shira would be severely punished. Since she was the only thing in the world that I cared for, the only thing that had ever mattered, I hung my head and meekly accepted judgment. We were put into stasis and sent through the wormhole into Earth's solar system.


	11. Happy Birthday

CHAPTER TEN - Happy Birthday

A persistent banging broke through my sleepy daze and I struggled up from my bed. Wiping the drool off my chin, I answered my door. Natasha was standing there, a half a smile on her face as she took in my disheveled appearance. She looked absolutely immaculate, as always, and I self consciously tried to pat my slept in hair down.

"Steve told us not to wake you," She started, and I narrowed my eyes, wondering what on earth had possessed her to defy Steve's request. She smiled broader and I began to feel uneasy. "But Tony got here this morning and he's decided that today is your birthday. I thought that you'd like a warning." I blinked at her.

"What?" I said intelligently. I didn't have a birthday. Neither the Kree nor Hydra had bothered with such things, and I didn't much see the point in simply celebrating having successfully stayed alive for year after year. Trust Tony to have noticed the missing date in my file.

"If you want a chance to wake up properly before the party he's planning for tonight, you should probably get up now." She told me and I gave her a bemused expression noting, with a glance at the clock, that it was quite late in the day already. She flashed me a warm smile and then sauntered off. I watched her stalk up the corridor wondering how my life got so weird.

I showered and then dragged myself out of my dorm, hair still wet and barefoot, looking for answers and food. I got to the kitchen to find Tony talking animatedly with Thor and Steve. Natasha was at the coffee maker looking innocent. Tony spied me, and with a large grin, grabbed a small and garishly decorated box off the table.

"Happy Birthday Brookie!" He declared. I gave him a brief dirty look at his stupid nickname for me, a cross between Brooke and rookie. He'd thought that he was so clever to have thought of it. Thor was smiling in a patient, sort of vague way, and I avoided looking at him. My dream still very fresh in my mind.

"Stark!" I said, I was genuinely happy to see the billionaire, I gave him an award half hug and he shoved the box at me. I had to grab it before it fell to the floor.

"You know that I don't have a birthday." I told him. Tony dismissed my statement with a pfft.

"I know, so I decided to give you one." He said with a self satisfied smirk. I poked my tongue out and opened the box. I pulled out what looked to be tiny, silvery-gray jumpsuit and held it out before me, while Tony waggled his eyebrows. It was small enough to fit a child or doll. I gave him and extremely doubtful look.

"It's your suit!" He said expectantly, an excited smile playing about his features.

My face dropped. "Stark, this would fit an infant." Steve snorted with amusement and Natasha turned a laugh into a cough. Tony rolled his eyes at me.

"No look, it's stretchy," He said, grabbing the offending item and demonstrating. "I remembered that fight you had with Steve about your concentration," I flushed, remembering it too. Steve, who was currently turning a deep shade of vermilion, had been ripping into me about not paying enough attention when he landed a punch that I should have been able to block. I'd retaliated by yelling at him that if I didn't have to protect his modesty and focus on making sure I kept my clothes on, we wouldn't have a problem. He'd told me that I was making excuses, so I'd stopped concentrating on my clothes and launched myself at him, soon ending up totally starkers. He'd become so flustered that I actually pinned him for the first time ever.

"Ah yeah." I said. I wasn't really proud of my actions, having traumatized Steve with my childish behavior. He hadn't been able to look me in the face for days afterwards. I held out my hand, and took the garment from Tony. "Oh, it's Vibranium!" I exclaimed. Running the lightweight, brilliantly created fabric through my fingers. It was actually a fine blend of Vibranium and elastic polymers. I was incredibly impressed.

"Yeah, I did note that your chain always changed with you, so I figured that a suit with the same construct..." I silently marveled at his genius. I was so familiar with the make up of Vibranium that it was virtually an extension of me. That's why it was my go to Shift when I encountered conflict. It was almost effortless. My chain, being Vibranium and tainted with my soul was as much a part of me as my arm. With a bit of practice, and some wear, I could adapt this suit achieve the same effect. I wouldn't have to worry about being suddenly nude mid-fight anymore, something that Steve also looked very happy about.

"Thanks Tony." I said, smiling warmly at him, genuinely happy that he would do this for me. He grinned and gave me a wink, before pulling a tube of Vegemite out of his pocket. I went full fan girl and actually shrieked with delight.

"Fucking Vegemite! Tony you beautiful, beautiful man!" I yelled, causing Widow to stare. I didn't care. There was plenty I missed about my home country, but Vegemite was definitely very high up the list. It had never really become popular in America for some reason. Tony was basking in my elation. I was grinning like an idiot.

"I tried that stuff once." Natasha commented, referring to my tube of Aussie goodness, "I don't understand how anybody could like it." She wrinkled her cute little nose with distaste.

I gave her a hard stare. "Let me guess, you either put a great big gob of it on your finger like it was freaking Nutella and popped it in your mouth, or you spread it too thickly on your toast like it was damn peanut butter?" I said, rubbing my fingers absently over my suit. Natasha gave a guilty nod and I sighed. "You can't just go ramming it in your face like that. It's a _refined_ taste. Used sparingly for maximum benefit!" I told her exasperatedly. She just gave me a shadow of a smile that quickly vanished her her eyes focused on something behind me.

"You are shitting me? After everything I went through to try and get you to come back, you to tell me no, and then suddenly you just decide to show up here, all by yourself, out of the blue? I got shot at by Hydra chasing you man!" I heard Clint exclaiming. I turned around to see what was the cause of his drama. He was speaking to a withdrawn looking man with glasses and a head of unruly dark hair. I took in the purple shirt, the fact that looked like he'd been through the wringer, more than once, and concluded that I was looking at Bruce Banner. When I turned back around, Natasha had gone.

"Big guy!" Tony exclaimed happily. He, Thor and Steve approached the man with joyful greetings, I hung back. A tad reserved. I'd read a lot about Bruce and the others had filled me in on a fair bit of stuff. I wasn't really impressed with his character, but I was extremely curious about his condition. While Bruce awkwardly apologized, I slid my soul out slightly, just to see what his was made of. It rippled and raged, at odds with itself, a heavy sense of discontentment wafting off it. I'd heard Bruce and Hulk described as separate entities, but I wasn't seeing two souls. Every personality has a soul, I had seen no exceptions. I would have to wait until I saw the Hulk, to see if the soul changed.

I noticed that Thor's soul was as amazing as Loki's had been, but for that enormous glow of deception that was in the Frost Giant's spirit, there was an equal glow of honesty in Thor's. Loki was the darkness to his light. The thought made me sad. I also could see an echo of Thor's spirit glowing in his hammer, Mjolnir. Steve's soul, as always, was so pure and good that I could barely look at it, and Tony's soul was as complicated as his mind. I leaned against the table and basked in the spirituality, grateful that I had the ability to know people in a unique and revealing way.

"Oh Bruce, this is one of our new recruits. Along with Sam, Rhodey, Wanda and Vision, or Vincent as he prefers to be called." Tony declared suddenly. I saw a flicker of dislike in Bruce's soul when Tony mentioned Wanda. I couldn't really blame him though, she had turned him into a batshit crazy strong Hulk who'd gone on a rampage as a result. In fact, thinking about it, she could be blamed for the whole reason that Bruce had dropped off the radar in the first place.

"Hi." He said, approaching me and shaking my hand. I gave him a smile. He seemed very awkward, kind of like a shy school kid. The complete opposite of his giant green alter ego. Very interesting.

"My name's Brooke." I told him, knowing full well that I was coming across as distracted. I forgave myself, his soul was an oddity that demanded my attention.

I'd gone even more peculiar when I'd first seen Vincent's soul. His was a brand new spirit. I had never seen one before, but I just knew what it was. The same way that despite no one ever seeing a unicorn, everyone would be able to name it if it appeared in front of them.

A soul is a created thing, a series of unknowing gifts from all the people who've loved you. The little pieces that get passed to you when someone falls in love with you, and that you pass on when you fall in love, the trading of pieces when you're part of a family. We all help create each others spirit without ever knowing. So, to see a newly born, pure, unused and untainted soul, one entirely unblemished by other lives was like staring directly into the sun. Of course, Vincent had been delighted just to hear that he had a soul, let alone that it was a stunning and rare one.

Between Loki, Vincent, Thor and Bruce, I was seeing more spiritual variety than I ever had before. Steve cleared his throat and I reluctantly pulled my soul back in myself.

"My bad, I was distracted." I muttered smiling at the men who were all looking at me.

"Soul seeing?" Tony asked and I nodded, he turned to Bruce, "She's like a spiritual lie detector." I grinned. Well that was one way of putting it. Bruce looked from Tony to me, puzzled.

I gave a small shrug. "I can read your soul. It shows me the truth of how you really feel at any given time." Bruce just looked at me skeptically.

Steve clapped his hands together and gave me a bright smile. "So Brooke, suit up. Birthday or not, you've still got training." He said cheerfully, and I gave him a look of utter devastation. Combat training was the furthest thing from my mind.

"But, Steve!" I whined and he laughed. Tony grinned.

"Nope." He held his hand up at me, "You got a sleep in, the least you can do is a bit of sparring." He declared, "Fifteen minutes, and then you'd better be on the mats." I swore at him, using the worst words that I could think of. He barely blushed, apparently used to my potty mouth. Tony and Bruce regarded me with looks of horror and Thor laughed.

"Aw come on, It'll give everyone else time to get everything ready for your party!" Steve said and Tony groaned.

"Well, it _was_ a surprise party." He shot Steve a dirty look.

"I'll act surprised" I said, grinning, then, throwing Steve a dark look, I stalked away to the fridge, where I found left over pizza. Excellent. Breakfast of champions.

I strolled across the room, elbowing my way past people and slopping my drink everywhere. So far, the party was exceptional. Some how Tony had managed to convert the large kitchen dining area into party hall, complete with balloons, streamers, and he'd filled it with people. To be fair, I didn't actually know half the people here, but everyone was in good spirits and having fun, so it didn't matter. Besides, I knew as well as any body else, several drinks in and it didn't matter if you'd never met the person before, they could still be your new best friend. The only down side that I could see so far, was that people with the drunk munchies were camped out in front of the open fridge, and I'm pretty sure there was a couple having sex in the pantry. I came across Tony, Clint and Bruce having a heated discussion over their beers.

"I'm telling you Tony, his cells will just repair the damage." Bruce was telling Stark. He had that look on his face that implied that he'd been trying to make Tony see sense. That chronic headachey kind of look. I sympathized with him. Tony didn't see sense unless he wanted to.

Clint whole heatedly objected to Bruce's opinion. "Come on, it's gotta work. There's gotta be something that'll affect him." I saw now that Clint was brandishing a huge joint and I had a feeling that I knew who they were talking about. I looked around and spotted Steve. Tony had obtained a pool table from somewhere and installed it in our huge dining room. Currently, Steve, Sam, Pietro and some dude called Scott were playing doubles.

"We'll just tell him that it works, because, _science_." Tony declared, "Maybe the placebo will get to him." He looked so hopeful that it was hard not to get carried away by his excitement. Unfortunately, Bruce had a point. However, alcohol was technically a poison, which is why his body rejected it. THC might be a whole different ball game. Though, smoking it probably wouldn't work.

"You know," I said, interrupting the argument, "You could make him some special brownies. Or if you could get him to eat Magic Mushrooms. Either of those would probably work." I drained my drink and found myself being stared at by two scientists and an idiot. Well, that wasn't fair, Clint wasn't really an idiot, he just seemed that way. Most of the time.

"Oh my god." Tony declared, "That's a legit option!" He got that look in his eye that indicated that he was about to put a plan into action without thinking it through properly, but Bruce cut him down beautifully. "I really don't think that giving Steve Magic Mushrooms would be a great idea. You can't predict how he's gonna go on them, and if it goes bad, well, Super soldier. Everyone else is too drunk to deal with that." He said pointedly. Well, actually there were quite a few here that weren't drunk for various reason, but I didn't correct him. Imagining Steve going on a drug induced rage was enough to make me shut my mouth.

"Personally I think he'd be a crier." Clint said and I turned away, stifling a sudden giggle. Secretly, I agreed with Barton. I adored Steve, but he was ever so slightly too sensitive at times. Swishing the dribble of liquid in my glass, I left the men to their conversation so that I could get myself a refill. I saw a brief glimpse of red hair flouncing in the same direction as me.

"Hey Red!" I yelled, and Natasha paused, turning to look at me. She smiled briefly before sliding her gaze past me. Her face became cold. I glanced behind me, to see what she was so upset about. Bruce was looking back at her, guilt and longing etched onto his face. Oh. Awkward. I wandered over to Tasha, who was wearing a green strapless dress that flattered every part of her very flatterable body and some very high heels... I felt kind of slovenly in my loose, gray shirt and fitted black slacks.

"Hey there birthday girl." She said with a smile. I gave her a grin.

"Yes, it is my birthday," I grabbed her arm and steered her towards the bench that was posing as a bar, "which means you have to indulge me." Natasha gave me a questioning look, which I responded to with a cheeky smirk. I arranged the shot glasses and filled them with vodka.

"I take that because I'm Russian, you assume that my drink of choice is vodka?" The redhead asked and I looked at her guiltily. "You mean it's not?" I squeaked, she laughed.

"Well, it is actually. I just enjoy messing with you." She wrapped her fingers around a glass and we both slugged down the shots. I pulled a face at the after burn sensation and then grabbed the next shot, ready to go again. We were interrupted by Thor, Vincent, Wanda and Maria. Thor was bellowing loudly about victorious battles and Maria was grinning, shooting covert looks at Thor's bulging biceps occasionally. Her and Natasha shared a knowing look. Vincent was taking to Wanda, who had her arm linked through his.

"So, how come Asgard's finest warrior is already three sheets to the wind?" I asked Hill while Thor slammed his hand down on the counter and demanded more drink. Maria shrugged while she handed him a beer.

"He's spiking his beers with Asgardian liquor." Vincent supplied, and I smirked. Steve approached the bar, watching Thor lurch about, boisterously telling whoever would listen about how the time he'd beaten something up. Or somebody. I wasn't really paying attention.

"Vincent, think you could steal his hip flask? I'm not convinced that he needs any more." Steve asked with a concerned smile. Oh that eternal boy scout. Not that I could blame him. A heavily wasted Thor was not a mess that I would want to clean up either. Vincent gave Steve a nod, then reached through the pocket on Thor's belt and retrieved the flask. He passed it to me and I quickly shoved it into my pocket.

"You're such a killjoy Steve." I commented with a smirk, "How's the game going?" I nodded towards the pool table. A drink poured itself at my elbow. Wanda gave me a grin as it sailed over to her.

"Well, Sam's drunk, so I'm handicapped, Pietro and Scott would be winning, except they keep having points deducted because Pietro's cheating." He told me, getting himself a beer.

"Scott's Pym's protege isn't he?" Natasha asked, "He can make himself really small?" Steve gave her a nod while I wondered who Pym was.

"Who is he?" I asked, "I've never even heard of the man."

"Hank Pym made a shrinking suit ages ago, but he's too old to use it now, so he's passed it on to Scott." Natasha explained. I was glad she was giving me the short, uncomplicated version. I made a mental note to get the longer version when I was sober.

"Ant-Man." Steve agreed solemnly and I giggled. "Well that's a bit underwhelming." Natasha snickered at my remark, Steve just shook his head in a resigned kind of way.

"Sam came across him actually. He's kind of tight lipped as to how though. He's here because Sam accidentally booty called him and well, the party came up in conversation." Steve told me casually. My mouth dropped open as I automatically searched for Sam. I would never have picked him as batting for the other team.

"Oh god, Steve. No." Maria giggled, "It's butt dialed, not booty called." She corrected while Natasha let out a bark of laughter and we all shared a moment of hilarity at Steve's expense. Maria then leaned close and whispered the difference in Steve's ear. I watched the meaning sink in as he turned red. "Oh, that's a thing?" He stuttered. I laughed harder.

"By Odin's beard!" Thor suddenly boomed, it seemed that he'd finally figured out that his hip flask was missing. Maria left Steve to his shock, offering to help Thor go look for his missing contraband. They left, Hill's hand on Thor's arm. She gave me a parting wink. Tony wandered up, I guess that he'd been talked out of making brownies for Captain America.

"Enjoying your party Brookie?" He asked me and I grinned, "Yep. You always throw a party this good or am I special?" Tony grinned his billion dollar grin. I practically saw his teeth glint. "Oh you're special, but my parties are always good." He said smugly. Steve chuckled.

"Well, it's certainly going better than the last party we were all at." He told Tony with a boyish grin, I gave him a blank look.

"No, that party was good. There was just that bit at the end that was sort of a downer." Tony said, pouring himself a drink while Natasha snorted.

"So, Ultron's initial declaration of Avenger extermination was just _sort of a downer?_ " She asked Tony, who pulled a face. "Yeah. My bad." He admitted. Steve and Natasha both rolled their eyes in perfect synchronization. I was impressed. I blinked and Pietro was suddenly there.

"Come on old man, we have a score to settle." He told Steve, who sighed and picked up his beer. He left for the pool table, Vincent and Wanda followed, hand in hand. Tony watched them leave.

"I'm not sure how to feel about that." He said. Natasha hummed her agreement. I shrugged.

"I'd say that it's none of our business and we don't need to have an opinion on the matter." I said, slugging down another shot.

"You're right. Love shouldn't be judged." Tony agreed. Then he looked at Natasha who was slamming a shot of her own. "How are you holding up there Rushman?"

"I'm quite sure that I don't know what you mean." Natasha told him. I was trying to figure out if he'd called her Rushman, or if he'd called her Russian but slurred it. I think I was well and truly on my way to being a tad drunk. I told myself that I'd stop drinking when I had to start shutting one eye to focus on things.

Tony snorted. "You know exactly what I mean. You two have been avoiding each other since he got here." Ah. Now I understood. He was talking about this weird thing between Widow and Bruce.

"Tony, just don't." She told Stark, who shrugged. "Fine. But you're gonna have to face it sooner or later." Was his parting shot as he wandered back off into the general populace of the party. I looked at Widow, who was pouring more vodka shots. I wanted to look at her soul, but I'd had far too much to drink to manage it.

"Well then, are we getting fucked up or not?" She asked me tersely and I raised my eyebrows at her. Accepting a shot I asked, "How many is gonna take for you to tell me what's going on with you and Hulk-boy?" She gave me a dirty look, but I just downed my vodka and waited.

"Nothing's going on with between myself and Hulk-boy. He didn't want me enough to stay. So nothing." She looked as though she immediately regretted those words, so she tried to deflect. "I'm done with men."

"Famous last words." I muttered, "Besides, girls are just as complicated as boys to love. I don't think you'd find it any easier." We downed another shot. I could feel myself getting drunker.

"You speak from experience." She said, more of a statement than a question.

I shrugged. "Well, yes." She gave me a long, appraising look, ending with a small smile.

"I've been with women." She declared, and I figured that the vodka was starting to hit her.

"Yeah, but undercover doesn't count." I responded and she grinned.

"Sure, they were missions. The sex was good though. Definitely worth seeking outside of work." She looked me up and down slowly, her bottom lip in her teeth, and I narrowed my eyes.

"You're coming on to me aren't you?" I felt heat rising in my face and knew that the vodka had nothing to do with how pink I was getting.

"Yes." She said with a slow smile. I felt my whole brain shut down in shock and then boot back up at super speed. Natasha was hitting on me. Oh sweet baby Jesus. I decided to grab the moment by throat and be proactive. God knows I wasn't likely to get another chance.

I threw down another shot, for that Dutch courage, and she followed suit. Then I grabbed her hand and looked around to see who was watching us, thankfully nobody seemed to be paying us any amount of attention. I believe this was largely due to Thor's sudden desire to climb onto the pool table and begin singing, in a rich baritone voice, some sort of fighting ballad. Maria was stuffing a dollar into his pants and Steve was yelling and poking the blonde god with his pool cue.

"I am aware of course, that this some sort of revenge thing for Bruce." I told her, as we crept from the room and skulked towards the dorms, before she could change her mind. Natasha trod silently behind me, still gripping my hand.

"Some of it's revenge." She whispered, "But some of it's solace." We reached my door and I pulled her towards me. There was a vulnerability in her eyes that twisted my stomach. I knew why she wanted this.

"We all want to be wanted." I said, tucking her hair behind her ear. She leaned in and kissed me. "I knew you'd understand." She murmured against my lips, and I shoved the door open and we stumbled in.


	12. A Skirmish and a Changeling

I was once again roused by knocking on my dorm door. My head was pulsing and my stomach tender. I peeled myself of the other body in my bed and lurched to my feet. I put a t-shirt on and pulled it down low enough at the front to cover myself. Squinting, I opened my door to Tony, who gave me a very amused look.

"Ah, enjoying our hangover are we? Steve's called a meeting in the kitchen, you got like, twenty minutes..." He paused, looking past me, "-Is that a _shoe_ in your screen?" His mouth opened with a half a smile as he examined the state of my room over my shoulder. There was indeed a shoe lodged in the screen that was mounted on my wall, the other one lay on the floor, below the hole it had made in the plaster. There were twin pools of green fabric laying on the floor and a foot was poking out of the blanket on the bed. I felt a smug smile come on my face at my recollections of the night.

"Is that... Do you have _Romanov_ in your bed?" Tony tried to elbow his way in the room, and I shoved at him, suddenly panicked. I was unsure as to whether or not I wanted everyone to know about what I'd spent the night doing, so I squeaked, "What? No, of course not!" at him and slammed the door in his face with such force that it bounced back out of the door frame, leaving the latch in disrepair. Tony look even more amused at my reaction and the noise caused Tasha to stir.

"Whasgoinon?" She mumbled, sitting up, fortunately having the presence of mind to keep herself covered up with the blanket. I decided to act casual. As though nothing were out of the ordinary. I spared a moment to think about how I seemed to be acting casual a lot lately, and I turned to speak to her, my ass hanging out the bottom of the t-shirt and on view to Tony.

"Steve's called a meeting in the kitchen in twenty minutes." I said, ignoring Stark who was peering in the door, a look of utter delight on his face. Natasha blinked through her hangover and looked up at us standing in the doorway. I felt my cheeks heat up as she gave me a knowing smile. Flustered, I grabbed her a robe off the coat rack and threw it over for her to put on, since I'd destroyed her own clothing last night. She caught it on reflex and after glancing at the remains of her dress, grinned at me. Her eyes slid to the coat rack and she huffed out a laugh.

"Looks like I owe you ten bucks." She told me, pointing at the rack, where her thong was swinging wildly on one of the pegs. I smiled, feeling absurdly pleased with my underwear flicking skills. She pulled the robe on, retrieved her shoes and grabbed her underwear, tucking it into the robe pocket.

"Good morning Tony." She told the billionaire, who had pulled out his phone. I had the feeling he was texting his gossip across the whole building. Natasha gave him an amused look, "See you guys at the meeting." Then she winked at me before stepping around him and disappearing out in the hall. Tony smirked and I shut the door in his face. I'd have to get it repaired. As it was, it'd swing open at the slightest touch. Maybe I'd over-reacted.

I quickly showered and abolished my hangover, but continued to feel sick from the lack of food. I had a feeling that the need for greasy hangover-cure food was Steve's primary motivation for calling the meeting in the kitchen rather than the assembly room. Most of us had binged ourselves into oblivion and it was very sweet of Steve to think of us all, but I didn't think breakfast was going to be a very grand affair. I recalled the people raiding the fridge last night and I had a feeling that the joint that Clint had been brandishing had eventually been put to use. We'd be lucky if there was any food left.

So I was very surprised to arrive in the kitchen to the smell of breakfast, which was frying away at the hands of Sam and Rhodey. The party hall was well on its way to being tidied up and returned to our dining room. Apparently Tony's money could make all sorts of miracles happen of a morning. I selected a banana from the fruit bowl and began methodically peeling it, ignoring the stare of barely concealed contempt that Bruce was sending my way. Everyone else settled for the occasional glance and smirk. I made a mental note to smash Tony's phone at the first given opportunity.

Thor came into the room. He did not look in very good spirits, with eyes like piss holes in the snow. I hid a smile and hoped that someone at the party had recorded his drunken exploits. He sat next to me at the bench and groaned. It was the most pathetic noise I'd ever heard. I placed a hand on the Asgardian and took his hangover away. He brightened instantly.

Sam began placing platters laden with cooked breakfast foods in front of us and Wanda made herself useful, sending plates and cutlery floating over. For a moment, there was nothing but the sounds of eating. I took a mental role call. We were all there. Even Sam's friend Scott and Maria Hill.

Everyone had their focus on their food when a foursome wandered into the room. Steve, Natasha, Fury and, surprisingly enough, Jess from Shield. She saw me and her eyes lit up with a determination that came close to frightening me. I just knew that I was the only reason that she was here.

"Is everyone here?" Steve asked, craning his neck and counting heads under his breath. I busied myself by filching the last of the bacon off Pietro's plate and eating it with Thor's eggs. Steve clapped his hands together.

"Ok, so there's a few worrisome events happening lately and now that we've had a chance to let our hair down, we need to do something about them. Hydra's been more active than usual, Relics have been stolen from Asgard, Thor believes them to be here, plus, I have been informed this morning that AIM have managed to get themselves back on Shields radar." Steve said in a commanding tone. Fury stood beside him, his stance intimidating.

"What was stolen from Asgard?" Clint asked Thor, who responded, counting the items off on his fingers as went, "The Orb of Agamotto, The Tesseract, The Elixirs of Renewal and The Norn Stones." He recited. I pulled a thoughtful face. Loki hadn't known about the Norn Stones. I wondered why they were being kept a secret from him.

"Do you have any idea who stole them? And to what end?" Fury asked. Thor shook his head.

"No, but they are all powerful artifacts that could cause untold chaos. Heimdall believes them here as this is where the Orb is clouding his vision."

"Can't you just go to wherever his blind spot is and I dunno, be violent?" Scott asked, and I privately applauded him for asking the question that I was thinking. Thor shook his head again.

"No. It is not a precise blindness. He describes it as more of a moving fog that prevents him from seeing some things some of the time." He began to pace and I was instantly reminded of his brother.

"Ok, so we know what the Tesseract does, You've just explained the Orb, sort of, and the Elixirs are fairly self explanatory. What do the Norn Stones do?" Rhodey asked.

"They are artifacts of the sorceress Karnilla. Their power depends on the user, and whether or not the stones accept them. They are capable of force to rival Odin's own power, most often they are used to create portals to other realms." Thor explained and I felt my stomach curl. Strucker had the Norn Stones in his power. I knew what he was going to attempt again.

"They're linked." I said quietly. Half of the room didn't hear me. But Fury certainly did. "I beg your pardon?" He asked me.

"Hydra and the stolen artifacts. They're linked." I received a good number of disbelieving expressions and raised eyebrows.

"You're telling us that Strucker's reach extends to Asgard?" Tony asked, doubt clear in his tone.

"Well, what about AIM?" Clint asked and I scowled.

"I don't know what the bloody hell AIM's up to, but I am telling you, the other two are one and the same problem." I stood up abruptly. "When I was a pet, years and years ago, the Baron tried something very ambitious. Even by his standards."

"I shouldn't have to tell you about his curiosity in things that are different,"I gestured in the direction of Wanda and Pietro, "He had that in common with Schmidt. The Baron was always eager to take Schmidt's orders, in fact, it was his devout following of those orders, and a little luck, that led to him being raised up as a lieutenant. It is no surprise that he has continued to pursue the same type of phenomena after Schmidt vanished. Their pursuit of myth and legends marking them as some of the most notorious Hydra heads." There was a quiet moment as everyone recalled just how the Tesseract had come into the light all those years ago.

"When Cannon -I mean, Bucky- and I were with him, he tried something. He came very close to succeeding. I don't know how, I wasn't privy to how he created it, I was just there to assert his control. He created portals. Doorways of light through which unbelievable creatures stepped through. It was the job of myself and the Winter Soldier to place the collars on these _things_ that were coming into our world. It failed, going completely tits up because Bucky had come more into himself than the Baron realized, and he refused to allow Strucker to create more slaves. Buck actively sabotaged the machine that was generating the power to these doors. The building caught on fire, I barely got Strucker out in time. Bucky went rogue for a short while until he was caught and his memory wiped clean. The machine, the new pets, and all of the research burned." I was being stared at by everyone. Steve was looking at me with such intensity that if he could drag more memories of Bucky out of my head by force, he would.

"Why didn't you let the Baron burn?" Bruce asked, a hint of malice in his voice. He was clearly taking my tryst with Natasha quite badly.

"Because, I was collared and subject to the Baron's bidding." I stared at him, my face impassive and my tone cold. "Believe me when I say that if I'd had the option to let him burn, I would have." Bruce's gaze dropped. He and I were going to have a have a conversation as soon as possible.

"Well, while this is very informative, it doesn't actually help us that much." Rhodey remarked and Sam hummed his agreement.

"Actually, it's a big help to know what the Baron's planning." Natasha pointed out. "Gives us a starting point to plan around."

"And what exactly is the Baron planning because I'm not entirely clear on that part." Clint asked glancing around, looking relieved when he saw that his wasn't the only confused face in the room.

"He wants to creating a fighting force using creatures from all of the nine realms." I explained, cutting straight to the heart of the matter.

"And creatures from the nine realms include Trolls, Ogres, and Frost Giants to name a few." Thor said, "So it would be best to stop him before he achieves his goal." He crossed his arms and scowled. I wondered what was going through his mind. Guilt probably. So far his realm had caused more than just a little trouble for our planet. Steve began giving orders and Jess made a beeline for me.

"I need more blood, and some tissue samples" She said without preamble. I sighed. "Ok. We'll go to the medical ward." We turned to leave the room but Nick stopped us before we got too far.

"Jess, might be an idea to collaborate with Dr. Banner regarding Davis's blood analysis." He told her, Jess's mouth dropped open and I grimaced. I hoped that I could talk sense into Bruce before he got to poke at me with pointy objects.

"Of course! Why didn't I think of that?" Jess made to bustle over to the ruffled scientist but Fury held her back, " _After_ he's finished helping us locate Strucker." Steve appeared at Fury's elbow and opened his mouth to say something but I cut him off, addressing Fury.

"How's he planning on doing that?" I asked curiously. So far, all efforts to locate the Baron's base had been for naught. I had an idea where it was due to the piece of my soul that was with Luke. But was hesitant to try and explain how I knew to the rest of the team. Besides, There was no guarantee that Loki was with Strucker anyway. At least, that's what I told myself.

"Well, he'll track the Tesseract, the same way he did when Loki had it. If you're right, and Strucker does have the Artifacts, we should find it wherever he is." Steve replied before Nick could answer. I tilted my head. "Huh. Clever." I said, Fury nodded and looked about to say something when the alarms sounded. It was the same wailing screech that had gotten us out of bed when Hawkeye and Pietro had arrived here. The intruder alarm.

Chaos followed the sound. We hadn't just been infiltrated, we'd been _thoroughly_ infiltrated. Groups of goons poured into the room almost as immediately as Steve called everyone to action. The Avengers that were still in the kitchen took point and faced off against the mysterious henchmen. Nick went flapping away from us like an overgrown bat and I bundled Jess into the pantry.

"Stay here, hide behind the stuff, just in case!" I told her hurriedly, slamming the door and vaulting off on Vibranium legs. I wished that I had the suit that Tony had made me, and decided in the moment, that I would wear it under everything from now on. The skylight in the kitchen smashed in and through the falling glass, I saw the Iron Man suit flash past. It flew across the room and arranged itself around a waiting Tony Stark.

"Who's goons are these and what are they doing here?" He yelled at me as I approached. I shot him a dark look. "How the hell would I know that?" I spat at him, as he gave me a boost, hurling me across the room at a group that Falcon and War Machine were having trouble holding off without their suits or any weapons. I landed behind them and flung my chain around the neck of one goon and gave it a hard yank. The uniformed person flew back towards me and I smashed my elbow into the back of his head, his skull caved under the Vibranium point. I saw a logo which I recognized.

"They're Hydra!" I yelled, twirling my chain into a pole and smashing the knees out of another enemy, he fell to the ground, I made sure of him by smashing in his skull as he went down. Sam and Rhodey seemed to have the rest of them handled. I saw Iron Man finish blasting a small huddle into uselessness. I ran across the room and jumping up, I hooked my chain around his ankle.

"Shit, Rookie what the hell?" He cried, adjusting himself to compensate for my sudden weight.

"Let's get outside and see what's happening there!" I yelled at him. He looked at me then up at the sky light. "Gotcha." His tinny voice responded. I gripped the chain as we went zooming up and out into the sky. I relinquished my hold and fell, landing on the roof. The whole base was surrounded by henchmen. Now that I knew we were dealing with Hydra, I wondered if the Baron was here among them. We both heard a spine chilling roar, and the west side of the building exploded.

"Well. Code Green I guess." Tony said, mostly to himself. I watched as Hulk begin decimating the Hydra agents that were closing in on the building. I ran along the roof tops away from him.

"Bruce isn't too fond of me at present," I yelled at Stark, who'd followed me, "So I think I'll just disappear back inside!" I smashed in another skylight and gave Tony a wave as I dropped down inside. He was already zooming off, presumably to help Hulk. I landed heavily on the floor, right in the middle of an altercation between Thor, and a beautiful stranger.

"Amora, return what you have stolen from our home!" Thor yelled over the top of me at the blonde dressed in green. So this was Loki's Enchantress. I instantly hated her. She was tall, beautiful her hands glowed green with magic.

"Our home? I was banished! Or do you not remember?" Amora snarled. I tried as best I could, to skulk away unnoticed by the pair of them. I did not get very far. Amora pinned me with her magic.

"That is no excuse to steal from Odin's own vault! To what end Amora? What possible reason could The Enchantress have to align herself with the filth of Midgard?" He was whirling his hammer. I don't think he'd even noticed me plop down from the ceiling right in front of him, he was so focused in his rage. I struggled to assert myself over Amora's binding enchantment. She wasn't really concentrating on me, just trying to keep me out of trouble. Apparently Thor didn't really want an answer to his question, because before Amora could respond, he threw his hammer. Quickly I shifted up, My back seeming to burst open, I snared the projectile with my particles as it zoomed past, it's momentum ripped me out of Amora's magic. She side stepped Mjolnir, but wasn't fast enough to evade me. I wrapped my arm around her torso as the mighty hammer took us through the wall.

We hit the lawn, rubble pelting down with us as we scuffed up the dirt, skidding to a halt. "Unhand me Mortal!" Amora screeched, grabbing me by the neck of my Batman t-shirt and throwing me away from her. I switched my shifts, changing to a bird and taking flight before I hit the ground a second time. My clothes fluttered to the ground and I lamented the lack of my suit again. I circled around to Thor, who was stepping through the hole in the building and approaching Amora. I lighted on the Thunder God's shoulder.

"Ah but you are a useful mortal!" He exclaimed to me as I let the shift go, remaining perched on his broad shoulder. Thor did not even bat an eyelid at my sudden nudity. I didn't know if I was grateful or insulted. Movement behind us attracted my attention, a large man with a very big ax was hurtling towards us. "Incoming, throw me back at Skurge and you handle the lady!" I barked. Thor did not question, he just gripped my wrist and slung me around, releasing me when I was pointed at The Executioner who was just reaching the hole in the wall.

I changed to iron, and my chain melted into a long sinister looked spike. The force of Thor's throw combined with my weight hit Skurge like a wrecking ball. My spike drove into his shoulder and my knee into his groin. He gave a blood curdling scream as we flew back into the building. I straddled him like a pony as we careened across the floor and into another wall. Dropping the iron shift, I enjoyed the look on Skurge's face as my boobs suddenly jiggled over his face before hardening again, this time as Vibranium strengthened my body. I ripped the spike out of his shoulder and raised it, ready to plunge directly into his face. A mighty screech from the Enchantress sounded, and a split moment after, rubble from the destroyed wall behind us hit me in the back with so much force that it lifted me off the Executioner and put me through another wall.

My Vibranium body took the hit, Then I changed, slithering out of the destruction. My small, sinuous snake body allowing me to navigate my way through the ruins quickly. My energy was waning and I had barely engaged in the fight. Mostly I'd just smashed through things My shift dropped away, and naked I staggered through the doorway of the room. It was strangely deserted, the noise of the fight seemed very far. Footsteps sounded from around the corner and I quickly shifted again. This time becoming the image of Amora.

Sure enough, three Hydra agents came barreling into the hall, stumbling to a halt at the sight of me. I looked at them with contempt in my best Enchantress impression.

"Report!" I demanded. I desperately hoped that Amora was an authority figure. Sure enough the men scrabbled to throw themselves at my feet.

"My Lady!" One exclaimed, "The Hulk was not supposed to be here. He's annihilated our outside forces." I fought a smile. "We have no back up, our forces inside the building are nearly depleted. We are losing this battle!" The agent finished. His eyes were pleading, silently begging me to call for a retreat. I grinned.

"Good to know boys." I said, Amora's likeness melting away from me. I grabbed my chain, it shortened and formed a hard ball on the end. I flung it at the agents, who were getting to their feet. It hit Goon One in the throat, crushing his esophagus. He dropped to the ground, suffocating. He'd be dead soon enough. Goon Two and Three turned to flee. The ball and chain changed back to a spike and I threw it at their retreating forms. It lodged in the back of goon Two, leaving only Three, who tripped on his comrade and hit the hard floor with a grunt. He watched me approach, frozen with fear. I didn't blame him, after all, I was some unknown woman with a morphing weapon killing off his pals in the nude. I stepped over to him and showing off a bit, I controlled the shift so that Vibranium slowly colored my form. I bent to pull my spike out of his friend and then I reached over and fisted the front of the remaining living goon's uniform, raising him up off the floor to my eye level.

"Tell me why you're here." I said quietly, the metallic sound of my voice providing a threatening tone. The agent flailed momentarily.

"She told us to follow her!" He yelped. I brought the bloodied spike up and put the point at his throat.

"I'm going to need more information than that." I told him, applying just the smallest amount of pressure.

"They don't tell us anything beyond orders!" He ended with a sob and I nearly felt bad.

"Then tell me what you overheard." I said reasonably as the point of the spike pricked his skin. A bead of blood trickling down his neck. He started crying uncontrollably and I could smell urine.

"Thor. She wants Thor. Let me go please!" I threw him to the ground, and he scrabbled away as fast as his legs could take him. The Vibranium leeched out of my body as I watched him go.

"Rookie!" Someone yelled behind me, and I turned slightly to see Steve striding along the hallway. I smiled tiredly.

"What's up cap?" I asked, trying to arrange my self to cover all my naked bits. Despite my efforts, one nipple insisted on playing peek-a-boob from behind my arm.

"It's over. They're retreating. Did you do this?" He gestured to the bodies of the goons and I shrugged. "A bit."

"You know we don't usually kill people right?" He demanded, Then, to my surprise he looked me up and down and smiled slightly before pulling off his sweaty and gross t-shirt and handing it to me. I pulled it on without question and gave him a smile of gratitude before responding to his question.

"That's stupid. Way to ensure your enemies come back at you with a greater thirst for vengeance." I said and he sighed, rubbing his temples. I decided to change the subject. "These aren't real Hydra agents." I sniffed, gesturing to the bodies, "No cyanide caps in their teeth. No Hail Hydra bullshit. Amora may be aligned with Strucker, but he's not enamored of her enough to provide her with real Hydra soldiers." Steve nodded.

"I think one or two of them may be genuine. Strucker would be wasting a golden opportunity in failing to send loyal agents. " He said. I hummed my agreement, then wrinkled my brow with a thought.

"Quick question, a Hydra is a beast with heaps of heads right?" Steve gave a short nod, and I continued, "So why is their logo a fucken octopus?" I asked, and he laughed.

"I don't know Rookie I'll try to remember to ask the Baron the next time I'm punching him." He sighed, all traces of mirth vanished from his face, "We need to regroup and assess the damage."

"Assembly room?"

"Yep. Find some pants or something first though." He said and I groaned. Pulling a face I left him in the hallway. He was looking down at the dead agents and I had the feeling that I was in for a definite lecture later.

We gathered in the assembly hall. I had stopped by my dorm and pulled some trousers. I was still wearing Steve's t-shirt though and I had every intention of keeping it. He was wearing fresh one. I was disappointed that he was covering himself up, and kind of amused because the pristine cloth looked very out of place on the roughed up super soldier.

"Amora came for me." Thor was telling us. Of course, I already knew that. Apparently my interrogation of the impostor Hydra agent had been pointless. "She came to convince me to leave with her, to go somewhere it was safe."

"She realizes that she was the danger right? That we were all perfectly safe until she showed up with a bunch of gun wielding lunatics in tow. Not to mention the guy with the ax." Clint said, hissing through his teeth as Natasha cleaned what looked to be a nasty graze on his shoulder. "Great idea, by the way, putting a great big fucken **A** on the building so that every man and his dog knows where to find us. That's almost as smart as giving a terrorist your home address." He slid his gaze over to Tony, who huffed and rolled his eyes.

"That was like, one time." He responded.

"It was more that she was referring to some future event." Thor said thoughtfully. Of course she was. The future event being that the Baron wanted to overrun the globe with feral creatures from other realms.

"Man, she has got it bad for you big guy. Helps out the ultimate evil organization, but at the end of the day all she wants is to save her bae." Clint commented snidely. I groaned and Natasha glared at him and grabbed his face, mushing his lips up.

"If you ever use the term _bae_ again, I will end you." She told him sternly and he quailed under her stare, meekly nodding his compliance. Tony giggled.

"It is true." Thor said mournfully. "Amora has long lusted after me. Her desires causing a rift in her relationship with her sister, even her mentor Karnilla." He fidgeted with the handle of Mjolnir. I scowled. While it wasn't exactly useful information, I would have liked to know that Amora had worked under Karnilla sooner.

"Well, can we assume that this future event is going to be invading monsters of the nine realms? Especially since it's now painfully obvious that Hydra is involved with at least two Asgardians. One of them just so happens to have mentored under the sorceress that created the Norn stones," I shot Thor a dark look that went completely over his head. Must be nice to be that oblivious. I continued, "And the second being a really big guy with an even bigger weapon. No offense Thor, the hammer is cool, but that ax is outright terrifying." I said, thinking about the third Asgardian that Hydra was also involved with. I was going to need to visit Loki, and very soon.

"I'd say that just about sums it up." Sam commented while the room agreed with him.

"At least we can trace them." Tony informed us. "When I was shooting at the retreating Hydra goons, I was planting nano trackers." He told Steve, who nodded his approval.

"So now we need a plan." Rhodey stated. There was an awkward silence. The idea of planning an attack on Hydra gave me anxiety, and even though I'd gained control over my Shift bursts when I was stressed, I still felt a little tingle in my molecules.

"Oh, and we also really need to give Brooke a better handle. Yelling out 'Rookie' isn't exactly inspiring a sense of competence." Tony pointed out and I smiled grimly and nodded my head. I'd been thinking on that.

"Actually, I think that if we're coming up against Strucker, I could be the ace in the hole." I said, earning a stare from Steve and a confused look from nearly everyone else. "I was one of his prize pets for fifteen years, a favored tool and weapon. Capable of many things. Using me, he was able to climb the ladder of accomplishment quite quickly. To that end, I believe that it's unlikely that he would have forgotten me." I said it quite nonchalantly, though my heart hammered at the thought of what I was about to suggest. "I imagine that if I were to suddenly just show up, he'd be quite distracted by it." There was a quiet moment while everyone digested this thought.

"And that gives us a edge." Natasha said, cutting through the silence. Steve's brow furrowed. "You sure you're ok with that?" He asked me, adorable with his concern. I shrugged.

"He's going to suspect it anyway if the Hydra Agent that I didn't, um, incapacitate, reports to him, and when I'm Shifting on the field. Might as well use it." I smiled, and Steve understood. I knew the Baron, and I was going to use it just like he'd told me to.

"What's that got to do with what I was talking about?" Tony asked quizzically and I raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, he used to call me his Changeling. I figure, that's as good a code-name as any." It was also the first real name I'd ever had. I was just a designation to the Kree, and Shira referred to me as her lover, not by any name. Strucker had began calling me Changeling from the moment he saw what I could do.

"Huh." Tony said, tilting his head. "I like it. I mean, I hate that he came up with it, but it's not bad." He said, and I shrugged.

"That's pretty much exactly how I feel about it." I told him.


	13. Confrontations and New Foes

Unfortunately for me, the medical lab was left largely untouched by the Hydra attack and Jess had brought her own supplies anyway. So, since I had no reasonable excuses to get out of it, I lay stretched out on the narrow bed, barely awake as Jess poked and prodded me. The area I was in was curtained off so that we had a small amount of privacy from the small medical staff, who were buzzing about treating injuries from the attack. She recorded my basic info and was just placing the tourniquet on my arm when there was a gentle knock on the wall behind the curtain. I opened one eye to see Bruce shuffling into the area.

"Hi, Jess, is it? Fury said that you wanted to talk to me... Oh." He fell quiet when he saw me. I groaned and shuffled up a bit. Jess's smile stretched wide.

"Oh yes, Dr Banner, I was wondering if you'd mind collaborating with me on Brooke's biology?" She asked, oozing sweetness. Bruce's eyebrows shot up and his eyes darted between Jess and myself. I pulled a face at him and his expression darkened. Jess shot me an unsure look and then pushed heroically on. "Yes, it's is most interesting, see if you can make sense of this for me." She swiped away on her tablet and then showed him my previous blood work analysis on the screen. I saw the exact moment that the scientist in him took hold. He took the tablet from Jess, fascination glowing in his eyes.

"This doesn't make _any_ sense." He stated, staring at it, and then at me with a frown on his face. I shrugged, honestly bored to death by it. My physiology had been a source of curiosity for many different scientists for years. I decided to entertain myself and see if I could provoke Bruce into a confrontation.

"Not to you guys maybe, but the Kree seemed to understand it well enough." I muttered snidely. Jess, sensing animosity, hovered for a moment. The tension between Banner and I becoming tangible. Then she just put her head down and pulled the tourniquet tight, making me suck in a breath of surprise which caused Bruce to smirk.

Soon enough I had a needle jabbed into my arm as they drained a portion of my blood. Bruce had elected to ignore me as a human being and treated me as a particularly interesting science experiment. It was mildly disconcerting as it was a perfect mimicry of how the Kree had treated me. I didn't like it one bit. He pulled the needle out and pressed a cotton ball into the crook of my elbow to stop any bleeding. He was brisk to the point of being rough.

Sullenly, holding the cotton in place, I mumbled "Fuck you, Banner." at his retreating back. He stiffened and turned to look incredulously at me. Jess, who had been becoming more and more awkward as the tension grew, fled at this final altercation. She made some lame excuse about needing to see Fury and ducked quickly out of the room.

"Now look what you've done, you've scared off the nice doctor." I scolded the tired looking man and he scoffed.

"Me? You're the one picking a fight. You just can't seem to keep your tongue in your head!" he snapped, outraged.

"That's what _she_ said." I told him smugly, loading as much meaning into the word 'she' as I could so that he'd know beyond a doubt that I was referring to Natasha. He began flushing red, and I thought I saw a tinge of green. While I was decidedly unafraid of the Hulk, I didn't think anyone would be too pleased if the building took another beating, so sighing, I said, "Look, I'm only being obnoxious because you're being a shit and I didn't do anything to deserve it." His mouth dropped open.

"You're kidding right?" He spluttered. I shook my head.

"No, I'm not. I know that I slept with Natasha, and that you and her have some kind of _thing_ , but it's not like I drove her to do it. That was aaaall you, nerd boy. Besides, she's a grown ass woman who can make her own fucking choices. You're just treating me like shit because you haven't got the balls to confront her about it." I swung my feet off the bed so I was sitting up and gave him the sassiest look that I could manage. I saw the conflict in his face. He knew I was right, but didn't want to admit it.

"She was just using you to get at me. You know that right? So don't expect any romance or warm fuzzy feelings from her." He finally said, unwilling to concede to me. I barked out a delighted laugh.

"Really? Oh my gosh!" I said with false despair, my hand over my heart, "How could I have been so foolish? Between the fact that you'd both been avoiding each other all day, the Hulk green dress that she was wearing, the excessive vodka shots and the fact that she came on to me immediately after Tony was talking about you, oh I'd never have known!" I pretended to sob into my hands and I saw Banner roll his eyes from between my fingers. I straightened up.

"Look pal, you can't hang shit on anyone over this. You _left_ her. She would have run away with you to wherever you wanted but you still _left._ She was the most vulnerable she's probably ever been for you, and you bailed. Then, you show up, all this time later and you can't even look her in the face?" Bruce was looking more and more dejected, but I didn't relent, "You can't even bring yourself to so much as apologize to her let alone explain, so of course she's gonna do something reckless. Something that makes her feel more in control of herself. So pull your head in, and stop being so goddamn moody." I stared at him, watching the guilt in his eyes.

"I couldn't have put it better myself." a sultry voice said and his eyes widened in alarm as Natasha walked into the room. She gave us both an evaluating look, and I have never seen anyone look so terrified and ashamed as Bruce was looking in that moment.

I cleared my throat. "So, am I done here?" I asked and Banner looked at me as though he'd forgotten I was there. Natasha smirked.

"Yeah, Steve wants to have a little chat with you." She said. I had a ominous feeling I knew what he wanted to chat about.

"This is because I left those Hydra agents kind of... Not living, isn't it? I muttered, displeased at the thought of a lecture on morals from the most righteous man in the world. Widow cocked her head and smiled. "Oh, it might be."

"Jesus. Ok then." I hoped down and looked at Bruce, "Good luck." I told him sweetly, thenI dragged myself out of the room with a grimace, leaving them alone to talk out their problems.

"Look Steve," I explained patiently while he stood clenching his fists in frustration, "I had years of fighting with the Kree and Hydra. Years of being taught to kill quick and move on. Spending half a year beating the crap out of each other on some mats isn't going to scrub out that kind of conditioning." I was rubbing my temples. We'd been going around in circles with this argument for forty five minutes now. I was well and truly over it.

"You have to at least try some restraint! Don't kill unless you have to!" Steve said, agitated. I groaned.

"Are you shitting me? They had guns Steve, with the bullets, that put the holes in you? You know, they puncture internal organs, shatter bones and make you bleed out and shit? This ringing any bells? They would've killed me without a second thought, and I _am_ trying, thank you very much, I let one guy run away didn't I?" I was getting so irritated with the whole situation. He tutted very loudly and looked skyward before starting on me again.

"You know damn well that they can't kill you, so you have to be better than them! Incapacitate them and let the justice system handle it!" He looked so exasperated that I didn't bite back with what I really thought about his precious justice system. That tended to be a bit of a trigger topic with Steve. Same as voting and taxes. Unless you wanted to hear a patriotic rant on doing the right thing for your country, you didn't mention these things within his earshot.

"Look, what do you want me to say? I'm very sorry, it'll never happen again?" I sighed, "I can't promise that Steve. When there's a fight, I just do what I do. I don't even think about it."

"Well you need to start thinking about it." He said shortly and I rolled my eyes. I was so done with this conversation that I was going to tell him what he wanted to hear.

"Alright, fine! I'll try, ok? I'll try to be the wholesome and good hero you think I am. That's all I can do." I took a deep breath and tried to relax my shoulders. I didn't like arguing with Steve, it made me feel like crap. Equal measures of guilt, shame and self loathing welling up inside me. I hated knowing that I'd disappointed him. He shoulder bumped me, letting the subject drop.

"You _are_ a good hero." He said, sincerity ringing clear in his tone. I smiled.

"You keep on believing that Captain. As long as one of us does, I'll probably be ok."

The rest of the afternoon was spent clearing away debris and checking the security systems. I didn't do much except eat and help the staff in the medical rooms. They'd been overwhelmed with minor scrapes and cuts so I showed up with a candy bar or nine in tow and helped them heal up the messiest of the wounds. I ended up crashing out in exhaustion for a few hours. They left me alone to get my rest and when I woke, insisted that they'd be ok and ushered me out of the rooms. When everyone reassured me that I really wasn't needed anymore, I left for a while, taking my new suit for a test drive.

I'd pulled it on earlier, and tried some experimental Shifts. They were effortless. Despite the suit containing unfamiliar molecules, I didn't have to think about it to take it with the Shift. I suspected that was largely due to a combination of the mostly Vibranium make up of the suit, and how tight it fit me. It looked like it was painted on. The fabric stretched and struck to every inch of me, from my throat to my feet. It was sleeveless with extra reinforcement on the soles of the attached booties, across my breasts and in my crotch area. I was most thankful for that last one, I wasn't too keen on anybody being able to count my pubic hairs through the thin fabric. Tony had, apparently, thought of everything.

I took to the sky, my wings leading me unerringly in the direction of the part of my soul that Loki had. I didn't feel the new suit at all, but the extra item that I was carrying in my Shift still provided some discomfort. Nearing what looked to be a large apartment building, I circled until I pinpointed Loki's location. I flew down perched on a fire escape, retaining the bird form upon hearing voices wafting out of the open window.

"I don't know where Strucker is, Amora. You shall have to find him on your own." I heard Loki say.

"But Loki, surely one as clever as yourself would have devised a way to keep track of him. You must have been doing _something_ with all that time you spend out of the bed these past couple of nights." Amora said and I wondered if I'd misheard her. I hopped closer to the window so that I could peer in.

She was clutching the front of Loki's jacket, leaning into him and looking up beseechingly. Loki held her waist lightly in and looked indulgently down at her. I felt a little stab of jealousy that I immediately dismissed. Of course he would want Amora. She was his closest link to home. And I wasn't _that_ into him.

"No my dear that's not the case. I have no way of knowing where he is, I am as clueless as you." He put his face so close that their noses were touching. I was absolutely disgusted. "You shall have to seduce one of his higher up lackeys with your beauty and charm. I'm sure they will fall over themselves to tell you what you want to know." Amora smiled. I wanted to smack her. If she had any sense at all, she'd have used this kind of behavior to woo Thor and get him on her side, instead of rolling up to where I lived, with a bunch of goons, and demanding that he leave with her and live happily ever after.

"Oh but Loki, none are as appealing to me as you." She murmured, her voice husky. I decided that if I ever got the chance to end this bitch, she was as good as dead. She kissed him and he wrapped her in his arms. I seethed, feathers fluffing out in outrage. I didn't even contemplate how ridiculous I must look as the angriest sparrow in the world, I just saw red. Right up until he pulled back with a small small and a nasty glint in his eye.

"Ah, but we both know that even I, am not as appealing to you as my dear brother is." His smooth words were like a bucket of water to her and she stepped back suddenly, throwing his arms off her. Her eyes watchful as the Trickster god shoved his hands in his pockets and smiled coldly. I hopped a little closer, ending up on the ledge of the window.

He continued, his voice light, but his posture menacing. "Yes Amora, I know. It wasn't all that hard to surmise why you'd been off starting a fight. Not that I haven't enjoyed our, ah, time together, but it's clear that you would use me, and all of Hydra to get Thor between your legs." His tone turned venomous and spitting, "You'll never secure the Thunderer's affections. Your actions are so pitifully desperate and obvious that even Skurge would turn away from you."

She stepped forward and slapped him with a resounding crack, "You dare!" She spat, obviously having no rebuttal. Her face was flushed and fury was written all over her it, she was going to make him pay dearly for his remark. Then she stalked from the room, slamming the door behind her. Loki rubbed his cheek and watched her leave. He stood quietly, watching the door for a little while, then strode over and checked the lock.

"Don't you think you'd better come in?" He asked suddenly, turning to look directly at me. I hopped forward and dropped the shift, standing before him with one hand behind my back, a sheepish smile on my face. He slowly took in my skintight suit with an eyebrow raised. I coughed, slightly embarrassed by his open evaluation. I looked at the red mark on his cheek. Yeah, that wasn't going away any time soon.

"I have a present." I said, and he finally looked at my face. I smirked at him, "Of course, it's probably not as potent as certain _other_ things of Asgardian origin, that you've been enjoying lately, but I hope you like it none the less." His eyes narrowed as I flicked an amused glance at the door that Amora had just slammed, then I pulled Thor's hip flask out from behind my back. It was still half full. Loki's mouth dropped open and his eyes lit up.

"Is that-?" He asked, taking it from me and handling it as delicately as he would a baby. I didn't blame him. After all, he probably hadn't been able to get a buzz off anything here on Earth.

"Some kind of crazy strong Asgardian liquor? Oh yeah. Thor got amazingly shitfaced last night and had to be relieved of it." I crossed the living room, feeling his eyes on my back as I walked past. It made me a bit flustered and unsure. I was just me, I hadn't shifted into some beauty queen with amazing assets. Just averaged bodied me with nothing worth ogling. And yet I was definitely feeling ogled.

With a tight smile I said, "There's some videos of him on Youtube if you want to watch them. Just search for 'Thor's ballad.' It's gone viral." I plopped down onto his couch, crossed my legs and slid my soul out enough to watch his spirit. I might be fairly friendly with Loki, but he _is_ the god of lies. Best to keep an eye on these things. I relaxed when I saw that he was watching me with a bemused expression and genuine warmth in his soul.

"You are a constant source of surprises." He told me and I grinned.

"I know. So, enjoying your Enchantress?" I asked him archly and he sighed.

"Not nearly as much as I was. Though I hear you had an eventful morning." He said, hiding Thor's hip flask in a cupboard. Then he turned to me and grinned, "Amora was positively _livid,_ and Skurge was quite shaken up. He came in here, bleeding and swearing about a naked woman nearly killing him, finally losing his temper with Amora for her fickle behavior and recklessness. It was quite an exchange." He gave me an expectant look when I snorted.

"Um yeah, We were was rather caught by surprise. Thanks for the warning, by the way." I said, shooting him a dirty look. He shrugged seemingly unapologetic, but his soul bridled with resentment and ire.

"I didn't know. When I woke this morning, Amora was gone, and he soon left as well. I know not where he went. I knew nothing about the attack until The Enchantress returned, bloodied and furious. I must say, you and your friends certainly did an astonishing job at taking out her force. To see Skurge so rattled was especially disconcerting." He seated himself next to me on the couch, forehead furrowed at my abrupt bark of laughter.

"He's just not used to that particular fighting style is all." I chuckled and Loki raised a questioning eyebrow. "I'm the naked woman who stabbed him." I grinned and both of his eyebrows raised, he dropped his gaze and stared at my body as though he expected my suit to melt away. "I got distracted and Shifted out of my clothes. Spent most of the fight naked."

"Well, that's certainly an interesting battle tactic." He told me me smirking. I shrugged.

"It wasn't as awkward as I thought it'd be, Thor didn't even bat an eyelid, just threw his hammer at Amora and kept fighting on." I relived it in my head momentarily until Loki broke the silence.

"Thor saw you naked?" He blurted out, seemingly unwillingly. I saw jealously rippling from him and while a part of me was absolutely delighted, another part of me remembered that Loki wasn't adverse to killing bunches of people and it wouldn't do to go putting him in a jealous rage.

"Well, yes but it was in the heat of battle. You've seen me naked too you know." I pointed out. In fact, he'd not only seen me naked, he'd manhandled me a bit, and rubbed on me. I felt a blush rising to my face and found myself to be shocked. I didn't even know that I still could blush after being alive for so long.

"That doesn't count. It wasn't you, you were Shifted." He insisted and fixed me with an intense gaze, as though he expected me to right his perceived wrong and just take my clothes off for him. I won't say that I wasn't sorely tempted. Instead though, I fidgeted a bit. I wouldn't have guessed that it mattered to him.

"You've been sleeping with Amora." I mentioned lamely. It wasn't even that relevant to the discussion but a part of me deep inside had insisted on bringing it up. He snorted.

"There wasn't a great deal of sleeping actually." He corrected me with a leer. His response was just so smug and _male_ that it got my hackles up. I leered at him.

"Yeah I know how you feel. Romanov didn't let me get much sleep last night either. She was insatiable." I said with forced nonchalance and faking a yawn that turned real about halfway through.

"I beg your pardon?" He said, sitting very still, eyes fixed on me. I gave him a little smile and lifted my shoulders coyly.

"Tony decided that yesterday was my birthday. Everyone had a few drinks and the Black Widow and I spent the night together. She's a dancer you know." The look on my face felt positively lecherous. I shouldn't have told him. Playing with the God of Mischief like this was courting trouble. But I couldn't help it. I wanted to see his reaction. His spirit darkened, his face only briefly clouding with distaste before his mask of superiority fell back in place.

"Well, we've both fucked deceptive women. It seems that we have more in common than you would think." He said silkily. My face flamed at the dirty word spoken with such eloquence. It was _wrong_ to hear curse words on Loki's lips. I cleared my throat, feeling very awkward.

"So why didn't you know about the attack?" I asked him suddenly, hopefully changing the topic away from bad language. I wondered if this was how Steve felt whenever people around him dropped f-bombs. For the first time I actually felt bad for him. Loki stared at me for a stretched out moment, his eyebrow raised and the side of his mouth lifted at my blatant subject change.

Finally turning away he said, "It would seem that Amora suspects that I don't actually want anything to do with the Baron and his schemes, so she's encouraged Strucker to withhold information. At this point I am not actually sure as to what my fate may be. It's clear that neither of them trust me, and the Baron seems to be slowly coming to the realization that he made a mistake by forcing me to align myself with him." He seemed fine, but his soul was clouded with anxiety.

"You need an out." I stated, worried about how I was going to provide him with one. He nodded his agreement with me.

"I don't know how to go about it with the threat of Thor discovering my existence looming over my head." He admitted, "And I'm not leaving without the artifacts that Amora stole. Strucker is dangerous enough, but with the Tesseract, a whole host of new, terrible possibilities are open to him."

"That reminds me, they've got the Norn Stones too." I told him and he turned to stare at me, the outright terror radiating off him causing me to flinch and lean back.

"What?" He hissed bolting upright and beginning to pace.

I sat up straighter, "Thor told us, the Norn Stones were pinched with the other things. The Baron is planning on bringing a bunch of creatures from the Nine Realms here and controlling them. He wants to use them as his very own fighting force." Loki turned sharply and stood, looming above me.

"The portal I created when I brought the Chitauri here? The Norn stones will act as the device that was created to harness the Tesseract's power. Only their power is much greater, instead of one portal above your precious city, they will be everywhere. And what comes through them will be much, much worse than the Chitauri. Thanos has set his mark on Earth, he once sent me through the Tesseract, now he will come himself to exterminate Midgard." He said, anxiety spiking his soul and his breathing ragged. I held up a finger.

"Do you mean Thanos, as in the Mad Titan?" I asked, hoping that he'd say no, but he shot me down.

"How do you know of Thanos?" He whispered. I sat back slouching in the chair trying to comprehend the depth of the new heap of shit that we were definitely wading in.

"I don't know much. I heard the Kree speak of him. Gossip I thought. They talked of a man who became so enamored of Lady Death that he slew his family for her. It's said that she cursed him and that he slaughters entire planets seeking her approval and admiration." I knew that they feared him. They said that he was the most powerful being in the universe. If the Kree feared him, than everyone on Earth should be terrified.

"He will erase Midguard from the cosmos and it will seem as though humanity never existed." Loki said, his voice a hushed whisper. The fear rolling off him was palpable. He was still standing before me and I reached up to take his hand. Instinctively offering comfort. He did not reject it. His fingers curling to hold mine.

"We're in so much trouble aren't we?" I asked softly, and he sat beside me, leaning into me.

"Oh yes. So much trouble." We sat, staring vacantly into space, imagining the possibilities of our future when something occurred to me.

"Thanos sent you, through the Tesseract. You had the Mind Stone, but you were under its influence!" I accused and he looked shocked at my outburst, I continued, "You must have been because some of that shit you pulled with the hostile take over was just ridiculous!"

"Oh, well I wouldn't say that." He defended, but not very heatedly. I glared at him and he looked resigned.

"I have certain skills and was able to reduce the Tesseract's influence to mere suggestion. It was very tiring and there were occasions where I couldn't hold it off. But the very real threat of Thanos's retribution spurred me to meet his demands as well. I orchestrated the battle as much as I needed to. I wanted to lose. I loathed Midguard, and had no desire to rule it and my best chances at being safe from the reach Thanos, was to find my way back to Asgard."

"You couldn't have just told Thor that you'd been forced to cut a deal with a lunatic for survival, and needed the refuge of your own home?" I rose an eyebrow and he rolled his eyes as though the answer should be obvious.

"And bring the wrath of the Mad Titan on my home and the people I loved? No. Far better to play the game and have him believe that I was defeated trying to achieve his purpose."

"So why didn't you tell your brother that you were being controlled when it was all over?" I asked and sadness resonated deep within him.

"The last I was seen by him, I was falling into the abyss of space after trying to annihilate an entire realm. I don't believe that he would have taken my word on faith. Am I not the God of Lies after all?" He looked so defeated. I knew that he was being truthful, I saw his honesty and I saw his anger. Leaning forward I lay my head on his shoulder.

"Well, I believe you." I murmured. He gave a laugh of pure relief and put his arms around me. I really hoped I hadn't just made a total fool of myself by admitting such a thing to Loki, of all people.

"We have to stop Strucker." I said, my voice slightly muffled. Loki didn't loosen his hold to discuss it.

"We will try." He murmured.


End file.
